The Dumping Ground Diaries
by BizarrePineapple15
Summary: There's a lot of kids at Elm Tree House. And naturally, that means lots of fighting, squabbling, fall-outs, enemies and romance. But sometimes they have to work together: Elm Tree House is different to the other care homes. There's floods, fireworks, bullying, babies, danger and new kids. And that's just the start. SEQUEL TO "A DEMON AT ELM TREE HOUSE" AND "THE DEMON TRAYLEN FILES"
1. Series 1 Episode 1: Discovery in the DG

"Oh my god, Saskia! It's been ages!" squealed Carmen, anxiously craning her neck above the sea of other Elm Tree House care kids to see the new girl, or rather the old girl who was returning to the Dumping Ground. Saskia Jones, the said returnee, had left Elm Tree House, a care home also known as the Dumping Ground, many months before, and had been fostered by a couple called the Lancashires, who had a son called Rydian, who Saskia didn't get on well with. In fact, they'd ended up fighting so much that Saskia had asked to come back to the Dumping Ground. Head careworker Mike had accepted this request and finally, Saskia Jones was coming back.

Her careworker Megan hobbled after her, dropping two suitcases down when she reached the front door, puffing and panting. Saskia, a calm girl in a pink skirt and green shirt, who was very tall and had long brown hair with blonde ends, ran up to Carmen and scooped her up in a big bear hug.

"I've missed you so much!" screamed Carmen.

"And I've missed you," Saskia admitted.

"And I've not missed you one tiny bit," I said. A quick reminder for those who've forgotten: my name is Demon Traylen and I'm a stroppy thirteen-year-old, with a hot girlfriend called Viva, who'd recently dyed her hair jet-black, leaving just a few long streaks of blonde. I thought it made her look even sexier, coupled with the increasingly, _outrageously _short skirts. I liked the short skirts. A lot. And also, my voice had broken in the past fortnight or so, and Viva said that made me sound a heck of a lot sexier. Win-win situation. I live at Elm Tree House, the care home, and I've got black hair which is pretty long, but not too long. I was still in mourning for my dead fourteen-year-old sister Siren. As well as that, my best friend Elektra had moved out, and she hadn't called me or emailed me since she left. All in all, I was not a happy person. But I had Viva, so there was some happiness in my life.

"Demon!" said Faith Davis, a brown-skinned almost-sixteen-year-old who was pretty much in charge. All the other kids looked up to her and considered her a leader, even though she'd only been at the Dumping Ground for three weeks. Personally, I was a bit miffed about this – normally the kids looked up to me, and then this new girl comes swanning in, and everybody acts like she's the boss.

"What?" I said.

"Oh my god, Demon, you're still here!" smiled Saskia running up to me excitedly and hugging me. "I thought you'd have gone by now!"

"What, taken away by the police?" I asked.

"No idiot, fostered!" Saskia said.

"Of course not, only the cute little ones get fostered, and I'm not cute or little."

"Whatever."

"You really thought I'd be fostered by now?"

"I didn't," said Tyler, "because nobody would ever want to foster Demon in their wildest dreams."

"Thanks a lot Tyler. That's really made my day so much better," I said sarcastically, glaring at Tyler obviously. "And I did get fostered _once_."

"Really?" asked Tyler, obviously not believing me. "And how come you're still stuck at the Dumping Ground?"

"I, er, I punched my foster dad."

"Exactly!" said Tyler.

"Oh shut up you two. Come on then, let's see my room," Saskia said, smiling.

"Carmen, could you show Saskia her room? Saskia, it's great to have you back, by the way. You've got your own room, and we're going to let you design it as you want. Nobody's in it at the moment, so it's very bare, but as soon as we've painted it and everything it'll look great," said Mike.

"Okay, that's fine," Saskia said, as Carmen grabbed her hand and dragged her up the stairs. Saskia Jones was back at the Dumping Ground, and it was going to be _great_. For her, maybe. I was still feeling upset, and I didn't think I would ever get better.

* * *

**Mike, Tracy, Mark, Toby, Brandon, Skye, Tyler, Carmen, me (Demon), Johnny, Viva, Saskia, Gabriella and Faith in...**

**THE DUMPING GROUND DIARIES**

**Episode 1: Discovery in the DG**

* * *

"Right!" cried Mike. "It's ready, two webcams, two rooms, perfect CCTV. Mark, you've always been saying that somebody's been stealing all the chocolate biscuits, so now I've got a webcam in the kitchen and you can catch whoever it is in the act. The other webcam, in here, so everything stays safe and shipshape".

"If you say so," said Tracy apprehensively.

"Relax, it'll be fine!" said Mike. "Probably," he added.

* * *

"Right guys. Diaries," said Tracy when all of us kids were assembled in the living room about an hour later. New arrivals since the death of my sister included six-year-old Toby Aldred as well as Faith. Toby was fun and outgoing, with brown curly hair. He often wore dark blue jumpers, and shared a room with Brandon.

"Yeah, what about them?" asked Tyler.

"You're going to write some," Mark said. Everybody groaned.

"But I'm too busy to write stuff every day!" protested Johnny.

"I don't care, Johnny," said Mark. "It's going to be a big long project. I want you to write a regular diary, write something every single day and make it enjoyable, funny, and very good. I want brilliant diary entries from all of you every day until Christmas. It's a fun project and it lets you remember everything that happens every day in the Dumping Ground."

"So, we've got you all a diary, and we want you writing as soon as possible!" Tracy said.

"Sounds like fun," said Faith optimistically, walking up to Tracy and collecting a black hard-back diary.

"I never thought I'd say this, but I wish Gus was still here," said Viva. "Because if he was still here, then maybe he could have helped us. He kept a diary every second of every day anyway." Reluctantly, everybody came up to Tracy and Mark and collected a black hard-back diary, including me. But then I went up to my room and chucked it in the bin. They couldn't force me, so I wasn't writing any diary, no way. But it seemed that the others were.

* * *

**Toby's Diary**

**Satterday May 4**

I got a buk. I'm supost to rite abowt what is hapning. So that is wot I wil doo.

* * *

Toby wasn't exactly the best at spelling. I think that had been revealed after Faith read through his diary entry from the first day, which had (excluding the date) nineteen words in it, eight of them spelt very, very wrong. Faith liked Toby, and Toby liked Tracy. I'd worked that much out. Faith liked to help Toby with everything and see how he was doing. Right now, I think Faith needed to help Toby with spelling.

As I went down the stairs that afternoon, I noticed all the kids around the sofa, reading from the same, dusty old scroll – who had scrolls any more? But all the kids were reading it, and as I came down, they all turned their heads to look at me. Brandon walked away from me a bit.

"What have I done now?" I asked.

"We discovered this – it's this piece of paper, look at it. The writing's ancient," said Faith.

"Wow, some old writing on a bit of paper, doesn't explain much. It's not exactly the best discovery in the DG so far."

"Listen to this," said Carmen, taking the scroll from Tyler. "_'Elm Tree House will soon be haunted by a figure in black, in the blackest room of the house, with black hair, and a black heart. This figure in black, an evil demon, will try to destroy all. Beware 2013." _Carmen warily handed me the scroll. The paper was yellowing and the information written in an old-fashioned untidy scrawl.

"Right, well on the basis of that-" began Johnny, but suddenly Skye stood up.

"Did you hear that?" she asked, crossing to the door. She opened it and gasped in shock. The other kids crossed to the door and gasped again. It was a toddler. A tiny toddler, a boy. He toddled warily through the door, past the crowd of children, and fell onto the floor in front of the piano.

"Oh my gosh, it's a baby!" cried Faith.

"Well, what do we do about it?" asked Brandon. "Where did it come from?"

"We need to do something. We'll give him to Mike, he'll know what to do," decided Viva.

"But in the meantime, we've got a bigger threat," said Gabriella.

"Gabriella? You believe this stupid scam too? I thought you were one of the nice ones! Johnny did this, or Tyler or somebody, but believe me I can prove to you that this is a fake."

"How?" asked Saskia.

"Well, I'm still thinking about that."

"Until then, get out," said Tyler, and he pushed me out of the door. At least some of the kids were complaining. Faith, Gabriella and Saskia looked a bit shocked, and Toby, Skye and Brandon weren't doing anything. Viva tried to stop Tyler, but he pushed her back. I tried to barge my way back in, but Johnny and Tyler pushed me out of the doorway. I fell backwards onto the painfully sharp stones.

Then I had a brainwave. I barged my way back into the house, and this time I managed to get it, pushing my way past everybody. I walked past the office to the art cupboard and pulled out a big roll of art paper. Then I cut off about 30cm of it, as the kids around me protested and shoved. The ends of the paper curled up a bit. I walked into the office and found a free computer – Mike's. Easy – I knew the password already. I entered it – 'beaker' – and opened a blank document. I shoved the art paper into the printer and quickly typed out the words from the scroll, into the document, using an old-fashioned font. I printed out the document onto the art paper and showed it to the kids.

"The exact same writing as the scroll," I said. "Because the scroll was typed. So it can't be that old. The art paper curls up like the ends of a scroll, and all the culprit needed to do to make this look old-fashioned, was to rub it with a tea-bag. And thanks to Mike's new CCTV... I can find the culprit". I triumphantly walked to the window, where the webcam was stationed, and pulled the slider back on the video, scanning backwards through the images until I saw a familiar blue jumper...

I played the video from that point on, and everybody could see Johnny Taylor typing the words onto Mike's computer, and printing it out onto the scroll.

"Sorry for doubting you, Demon," said Tyler.

"Yeah, sorry," added Carmen.

"Thanks, but next time, wait until you have more proof before you _kick me out._ As for Johnny, I think we should lock him in the coal bunker, whilst Mike's pre-occupied with this two-year-old. Who agrees?" Quite a few people put their hands up.

"Six people, great. Then let's go and lock him in there for, I don't know, an hour? Whilst I relax. And then Mike can get rid of the baby, and everything's back to normal." I smiled. Maybe life wasn't so bad after all. I didn't have my sister and I didn't have my friend, but at least I had the Dumping Ground.

* * *

**Well, I couldn't resist giving it to you early! So this episode should give you an idea for the series. The diary entries will feature in most of the chapters. Faith and Toby are the new kids, and Saskia has returned, and there's another new kid in the next chapter...**

**NEXT TIME...**

When new boy Joel Sherwood arrives, things start to go missing and pranks start to be played on people. But who's doing it? Demon knows it's Joel, but nobody will listen to him, and as well as this Joel is sharing rooms with Demon. Eventually, after bouts of stealing and lying, Joel's evil doings reach a dangerous climax...

**Episode 2 is called "Mischief in the DG"**


	2. Series 1 Episode 2: Mischief in the DG

"What? Another one?" asked Mark as he yawned after having completed a chaotic night-shift where Tyler had been up until two in the morning eating sweets. "I can't keep up with this, I just can't."

"I know, right," I agreed as I poured cereal into my bowl at breakfast. It was the Wednesday after I'd been accused of being evil and trying to kill everybody. Johnny had been well and truly locked in the coal bunker for about two hours – I said that I'd forgotten that he was in there – and best of all, the careworkers hadn't even found out about it – Johnny hadn't blabbed. It was now eight in the morning, and me, Carmen, Toby, Brandon and Skye were eating breakfast. "I keep telling Mike that he should just abandon everybody else apart from me and Viva, and let us stay here."

"So it's like you've been fostered, but nobody's fostered you," realised Carmen.

"Well, a bit. Everybody else goes, but Mike, Tracy and Mark stay."

"Why would you want to keep them?" asked Brandon in disbelief.

"Oh, thanks Brandon," said Mark.

"Mike stays because he can do the cleaning and washing the dishes and stuff, and Tracy and Mark stay because they can foster me and Viva. It's so obvious that they're going out anyway-"

"We're not going out, Demon!" protested Mark. "Me and Tracy are just friends."

"Whatever you say," I said lazily.

"I like Elm Tree House. You shouldn't chuck _me _out!" protested Skye.

"Skye, nobody's actually getting chucked out, this is just my perfect world," I said.

"Oh," said Skye.

"Hi, Tyler," said Carmen as Tyler walked into the kitchen, yawning. "We were talking with Mark about the new kid. You know we're getting another one today?"

"That sucks," said Tyler. "I don't like new kids."

"I hate new kids too," I said.

"Yeah, but we were all new once, and I expect everybody else hated us then," pointed out Gabriella, as she strolled merrily into the kitchen.

"How long have you been listening to our conversation?" asked Mark.

"Since Demon's perfect vision thingy."

"He's called Joel Sherwood, and he's ten, so be nice to him," said Mark. "Especially you, Demon," he said, pointing his finger at me.

"Why me in particular?" I asked.

"Two reasons," said Mark. "First reason, you're not particularly known for being well-behaved. Second reason – oh, Mike hasn't told you yet, has he? Well, it turns out that Joel's sharing your room."

"What?" I said in disbelief.

* * *

**Mike (MBE, as he tells everybody with any chance he gets), Tracy, Mark, Toby, Brandon, Skye, Joel (I don't care that he's new, he's still a total idiot), Tyler, Carmen, me (Demon), Johnny (other idiot, with even stupider clothes), Viva (sexy), Saskia, Gabriella and Faith in...**

**THE DUMPING GROUND DIARIES**

**Episode 2: Mischief in the DG**

* * *

I didn't like Joel one bit. He was a tiny bit overweight and wore a green T-shirt and tracksuit bottoms. He had short blonde hair and a round face, which seemed to look mean and menacing no matter what. He'd come in through the door and put on his best smile for everybody when he'd arrived an hour after breakfast, but as soon as he reached my room, he looked around in disapproval and dumped his stuff onto his bed, which was a brand new one Mike had had to buy specially. Then he had grabbed several sheets of paper and scrunched each one up into a sausage shape. Then, he made a line from them to divide the room.

"My side, your side," he said, smirking as he saw my reaction when I realised that his side of the room was way bigger than mine. This was _so _unfair.

* * *

Mike was in the kitchen cooking some sort of meaty stew for lunch. He was very busy in the kitchen, flitting from cupboard to cupboard looking for ingredients and popping them into a pot. I came into the kitchen and decided to start pestering him.

"You put me in with that abomination?" I asked.

"Yes, we thought it would be good for you to share for once."

"I don't _like _sharing!"

"Well, you'd better get used to it then, hadn't you?"

"I don't even know _how _to share! I've never shared before, why now? Please Mike, I've known you for, what, two and a half years?"

"And in that time you've not shared a room _once_!"

"Exactly, I don't know how to share! I don't like sharing, and I don't like Joel!"

Mike paused. "Oh, _I _get it... he's only been here for half a morning, but already you see him as a threat, don't you my young padawan?"

"Mike, he's ten! I could crush him! And from what I've heard, sharing's _way _too personal. I mean, if you've got a room-mate, then they see you getting changed and stuff. I don't want a ten-year-old idiot seeing everything! And Joel's three years younger than me anyway, it's wrong! Make him share with Johnny!"

"Johnny's room isn't big enough for two kids."

"Oh _please_, it's bigger than mine is! And where do these new kids keep sprouting from? I don't like the idea of new kids every day, and I don't like any of the new kids either!"

"I think that's a bit unfair, don't you think?"

"No! In February, we got Toby. In April, we got Faith, and then Saskia came back at the weekend, _and _we got a toddler-"

"Thank god we got rid of him. Pooing everywhere."

"-and now Joel!"

"I see what's happening..."

"Doubt it," I said.

"You're running out of friends. You don't like Johnny. Tyler's just about the only boy your age. You've got Viva, but that's about it."

"I don't need other people," I protested.

"You might _think _you don't, but everybody does really, Demon. You're missing Elektra, aren't you? I get it, that's natural. She's been your best friend for ages and then she leaves to move nearer to her sister out of the blue. Get it – out of the _blue_, because Elektra's favourite colour was blue!"

"Don't try to be funny, Mike. And of course, I miss Elektra. I just don't get why she picked her stupid retarded sister over me!"

"Melissa is not retarded, Demon, and one more word like that and you're grounded! But hey, I'd love to see Elektra's face if she could see you calling her family stupid and retarded. I know careworkers shouldn't condone violence, but Demon vs. Elektra would be one fight I know I wouldn't wanna miss!"

We laughed.

"So do you want me to give Elektra a ring?" asked Mike.

"No, she'll think I'm grovelling for her to come back! And I've got her number anyway."

"Your life really isn't fair, is it Demon?" said Mike, finally stopping his cooking for a minute. He looked at me. "Selfish dad, drunk mother, and then you went into lots and lots of care homes, and you've had tons of bad accidents during your time at Elm Tree House. I'm sorry for you, man."

I looked up at Mike. "I'm never going to be fostered, am I?"

"No, you will Demon, you will! It'll take time, but somebody will want you!"

"Thanks, but you're lying to keep me happy. I'm old enough to know how it works. Only the cute little ones get snapped away. Toby'll be gone before Christmas. And I'm not one of the cute little ones any more." I dipped a finger into Mike's stew. "Quite nice actually!" I said, surprised.

"I'll see if we can possibly consider refurbishing the spare room and putting Joel in there, then."

"Mike Milligan, superstar!" I said, walking out of the kitchen happily. As I walked out of the kitchen, I heard protests and shouting coming from outside the office. As I walked there, I saw Mark shepherding the kids out of the office.

"What's happened?" I asked.

"Our stuff's gone missing!" said Viva. "Precious stuff!"

"We're not blaming you, after last time," said Brandon, "but we want our stuff back!"

"Joel, it must be! He's been here half a morning, and suddenly everybody's stuff disappears. I'll go and talk to him."

"I don't exactly think it's fair to say it was him after half a morning of knowing him, but hey, go and investigate, Sherlock," said Gabriella. I walked up the stairs to my bedroom. Joel was there, going through my things!

"Get out of my things!" I said, shoving him away from my stuff. To my surprise, Joel ran straight into me and rammed me. He pushed me into the wardrobe and shut the door. If he stood on his bed, he could just about push the wardrobe over, and that's what he did. With me still in it, the wardrobe careered over into the carpet... I was trapped, losing air, in an upturned wardrobe, with no escape. I felt trapped, like the top of the wardrobe was going to cave in on me. The worst thing was, I could hear Joel's chuckles as I slowly felt more and more sick... And then, I blacked out.

* * *

When I woke up, I could see everything clearly. I checked. No wardrobe on top of me. I was sitting on one of the sofas in the quiet room, with Viva next to me. Mike looked relieved.

"Demon, are you okay? How did it happen? You passed out, oh my gosh, how did it happen?" he asked. I was a bit annoyed about how concerned he was, because if he truly cared, then he wouldn't have let it happen in the first place.

"Joel," I said.

"...will be severely punished, don't worry, we know about it," added Mike. "In fact, I'll dish out the punishments right now, as long as you're fine."

"I'm fine," I said. "And 'punishments' – plural?"

"Plural," he agreed. Quickly, I walked away and up the stairs into mine and Joel's room, finding Joel on his bed. Then I walked up to him.

"This isn't over," I warned, storming out of the room.

* * *

**Next time...**

It's a massive prank war in the Dumping Ground, with Elm Tree House divided into two teams, each fighting to be crowned as the best pranksters. Demon and Viva are separated, but Demon is put on a team with Joel. Will they eventually get along? As flour bombs fly and fireworks spark, the pranks go out of control, and begin to endanger the kids and careworkers, and destroy the house...

**Episode 3 is called "Showdown in the DG".**


	3. Series 1 Episode 3: Showdown in the DG

**Tyler's Diary**

**Sunday May 12 2013**

Okay, this is how it happened. We were really, really bored and all we wanted to do was have a bit of a laugh. So we went up to Mike and asked him if we could do something to have fun, like bowling or something. But then Mike goes off on this mad crazy idea about a whole day of mess and disaster, or whatever it was he was trying to suggest. And I didn't actually think he'd go through with it, but there it was, after school on Friday, he decided that the rest of the day was fun day. But it turned out to be not fun at all. At _all_.

* * *

**Mike (who still hasn't agreed to put Joel in the spare room), Tracy, Mark, Toby, Brandon, Skye, Joel (who I am _very_ tempted to murder), Tyler, Carmen, me (Demon), Johnny, Viva (whose skirts just keep getting shorter :D), Saskia, Gabriella and Faith in...**

**THE DUMPING GROUND DIARIES**

**Episode 3: Showdown in the DG**

* * *

_Friday May 10, 4:00pm_

"Right, you lot, here we go," said Mark, shepherding all of us kids into the kitchen. "You're gonna like this," he promised.

"I think we'll be the judges of that," said Tyler.

"Tyler, you were the one who started this whole thing," said Mike.

"Oh my god, it's not-" began Tyler, but Mike 'shh'-ed him.

"Yes it is. Everybody, from now on until seven o'clock, is the official Elm Tree House prank day. We're gonna divide this place into two teams, with Mark and Tracy on the teams as well, and you're going to have to use your initiative and stuff from the cupboards to make the best pranks to prank the other team."

Everybody cheered. "However..." said Mike, and we all fell silent. "There's just a few rules. You can't do anything to deliberately injure or embarrass any members of the other team, and at the end of the prank day, everybody has to clean up their own mess." At this, everybody groaned.

"We're going to tell you the teams, and then you can go off, form some sort of battle plan and get some pranks ready. After that, prank at will. And remember to abide by the rules. We don't want anybody getting hurt," said Tracy. "Right then, here's the teams," she added, pulling a piece of crumpled paper out of her jacket pocket.

"Team 1 is made up of Demon, Mark, Skye, Brandon, Gabriella, Carmen and... Joel," she said uneasily. I glared at Joel. He was my worst enemy and I didn't want to end up working with him. "And Team 2 is the rest of you, so that's Viva, Toby, Johnny, Saskia, Faith, Tyler and me. Right, let's get pranking!" she cried, stuffing the paper into her pocket and joining the rest of her team. Mark came up to me.

"Right, let's get the team together," he said, and we got everybody together. We went to the living room.

"Right, who's in charge?" asked Mark. "I think I should be, because I'm supposed to be a responsible adult."

"Yeah, but I'm cleverer than you," pointed out Skye.

"Ripped by a nine-year-old, Mark!" cried Gabriella. "Sorry," she said. "Right, well I'm in charge then. We can't begin this prank war by arguing amongst ourselves. Lets think ideas. What pranks have we got?"

* * *

We were creeping quietly through the Dumping Ground, past where the piano used to be before Gus left, and we were going through to the kitchen for, bizarrely, a biscuit tin. It was all part of our plan, and we knew that Skye and Brandon would be _very _happy to eat all of the biscuits. But we just needed the tin for our plan for the first prank.

But as we were going to the kitchen, suddenly there came a giggling. We all looked up to see Team 2 standing triumphantly at the top of the stairs, smirking. They were armed with flour bombs. A lot of flour bombs. One by one, they PUSHED them over the banister, as flour RAINED down, DRENCHING our team in the white powder. Carmen screamed and Team 2 retreated up the stairs. All of us were drenched in flour and our clothes were almost completely white. Team 2 had prepared a _lot _of flour bombs.

"Right guys," said Gabriella when we finally recovered, her dark brown hair turned almost white with the flour, and her flowery purple top also white. "We need to up our game."

"It's all because we let them get upstairs! They had an advantage, they were higher up than us! We're idiots!" decided Carmen.

"Well, maybe _you _are," said Joel. "Oh, and Demon," he added for good measure. "But I've got a pretty good idea."

"Oh god," I said...

* * *

Team 2 crept downstairs to get some things that they needed for their next prank. As they walked into the kitchen, they walked into the room. Then all of them slipped up and skidded across the floor. Tracy, Johnny, Faith and Saskia fell over onto the kitchen floor. And our team sprang out of hiding and started laughing in their faces.

"What?" asked Johnny, standing up slowly and clutching his back.

"Look on the floor," said Joel. They looked down and realised what we'd done.

"Buttered floor," said Faith.

"Clever, huh?" said Joel.

"Idiot," said Johnny.

"_Clever _idiot," said Joel. Our team left the room smirking.

"Okay, maybe you're a bit cleverer than I thought you were," I admitted. Joel just smiled at me smugly. And we were supposed to be working together.

* * *

**Skye's Diary**

**Friday May 10 2013**

As our team tiptoed through the corridors, we got drenched in CUSTARD. Yes, CUSTARD. Is that how you spell CUSTARD? I think it is. We were going to go and get some more stuff for the next prank but then the other team fired a massive custard cannon at us, and that made mess _everywhere_. So they'll be cleaning _that _up. But at the time we were all really annoyed, and Mark said "Is that all you can do? A bit of food?" and then Demon blamed it all on Joel. But apparently it didn't matter. We were ready for our final prank. And the other team wouldn't know what was coming. Blimey, I'm getting a lot better at spelling.

* * *

The second group entered the kitchen. The trap had been sprung. A biscuit tin lay on the table. Suddenly, it began to SPARK and FIZZ uncontrollably, lurching along the table in an EXPLOSION of BRIGHT LIGHT of all colours. The smoke alarms all set off, BEEPING MADLY. A firework escaped from the biscuit tin. Toby ran away, SCREAMING LOUDLY. The firework set fire to the table, the flame springing all around it, igniting the wood. Carmen and Saskia screamed, but Faith grabbed a fire extinguisher from the wall and the fire was extinguished quickly as the powerful steam put out the roaring, crackling orange fire, leaving only a charred table. We relaxed. Phew.

* * *

**Carmen's Diary**

Nobody was hurt, but Mike told us off really sternly and he said that because of the carnage and destruction, neither team would win. And we still had to clean up.

* * *

Johnny started up the computer the next morning. As he typed his password in and entered it, suddenly there came DEAFENING GUNSHOTS. Johnny screamed and ducked down. Me and Joel came out from hiding underneath the pool table.

"What was that?" he asked angrily.

"Just our way of saying that Team 1 wins," I said. Joel patted him on the back and we left the room.

* * *

**Next time...**

Where did Joel come from? Why was Toby so frightened of the fireworks? And what have the careworkers not been telling Gabriella?

**Episode 4 is called "Explanations".**


	4. Series 1 Episode 4: Explanations

Gabriella sat crying softly in her bedroom, huddled up, curled into a ball on her bed. She gazed up at the ceiling, as the tears streamed down her cheeks to her mouth. They tasted salty. She briefly let herself think back to what had just happened. She'd heard the news. She'd screamed. She'd thrown a plate at Tracy. It had smashed on the floor. She'd screamed again. She'd ran up to her room. And on came the tears.

* * *

**Mike (MB flippin' E), Tracy, Mark (who's _totally _going out with Tracy, even though they don't admit it), Toby, Brandon, Skye, Joel (and I am now on the brink of madness because of him), Tyler, Carmen, me (Demon), Johnny, Viva, Saskia, Gabriella (boohoo indeed) and Faith in...**

**THE DUMPING GROUND DIARIES**

**Episode 4: Explanations**

* * *

"So, let me get this straight," said Carmen, ambling into the kitchen lazily. She checked the clock. Half past two. "She died _six months ago_, but you only told her now? Um... why?"

"Well, we didn't want to hurt her feelings. We thought it was best for her. She was still settling in anyway," replied Tracy. She was doing the washing-up by the kitchen sink.

"Yeah, but she had a right to know," said Viva. "If one of my parents died, I would want to know. Actually, I wouldn't, my parents are stupid, but Gabriella deserved to know at the time."

"We thought it was best! Maybe we were wrong, but we're in charge!" said Tracy.

"So you thought it was the right time to tell her _now_, and you tell her, and she goes mad? Great one, Tracy!" said Skye sarcastically. She, Brandon and Toby were sitting at the table eating biscuits. They were really, really good friends.

"Well, it's happened now, hasn't it? There's nothing we can do, apart from give Gabriella some space so she can come to terms with the news, cope with it," replied Tracy.

"What about a funeral or something?" asked Carmen. "Has that... already happened?"

"Yes, it has Carmen, five months ago," replied Tracy solemnly.

"Five months ago? You mean Gabriella wasn't invited to her own mum's funeral?" asked Viva, fuming. "I'm sorry Tracy, but's that completely out of order!"

"Look, we're all sorry, me, Mark and Mike, but it's happened now. We can't do anything else," protested Tracy. Everybody in the kitchen – Skye, Brandon, Toby, Carmen and Viva – glared at Tracy in disgust. Carmen and Viva stormed out of the kitchen. "It wasn't my idea to keep it a secret!" shouted Tracy as they left. Skye, Brandon, Toby looked away from Tracy and went back to eating biscuits. Angrily, Tracy walked to the table and snatched the biscuit tin off them. "You're not having more of those!" she fumed. Toby growled.

* * *

Carmen and Viva walked into Gabriella's room quietly. They saw the older girl sitting on the floor, her wavy, dark brown hair obscuring her face. She was gently sobbing.

"Are you okay?" asked Viva. Before Gabriella had a chance to answer, the bedroom door banged open. Gabriella abruptly jolted upright to see Toby standing in the doorway.

"Are you okay?" he asked, but then he stopped and froze. A candle had been lit on the windowsill – the flame was burning powerfully. He turned and ran.

"Okay, sorry about this Gabriella, but we're going to have to sort Toby out," said Carmen.

"Yeah, when the table was on fire on prank afternoon, and then now – Toby's got a thing about fire, I think," announced Viva.

"Exactly. Let's go find out," said Carmen. They turned and left the room, following Toby through the corridors. Toby went into his room and Carmen and Viva followed without bothering to knock on the door.

"Toby, we were just a bit curious..." said Carmen.

"Go away!" said Toby.

"About why you don't like fire..." finished Viva.

"Go away!" said Toby.

"We just want to know," said Carmen.

"Okay," conceded Toby. "My mummy and daddy and brother and sister all died in a big fire in my old house. I was the only person who didn't burn to death, but I was trapped in there, and I was scared. Now... I'm frightened of fire."

"Fire-ophobia," said Carmen wistfully.

"Does Mike know about this?" asked Viva. Toby nodded. Viva and Carmen left the room.

* * *

**Viva's Diary**

**Sunday, May 19 2013**

So much has happened lately – first all that stuff about Demon being evil two weeks ago, then Joel, then the prank day, now all this – really busy day! Turns out Gabriella's mum, the one who left Gabi on her own for ages at a time, turns out that she died half a year ago, and the careworkers, they've only told her now. She's furious, and I don't blame her! She threw a plate at Tracy. And also, turns out Toby's massively afraid of fire, which we didn't know. What else can happen today?"

* * *

"So that's how bored this lot are?" asked Saskia, looking at the rest of the kids, who were talking to each other about how they ended up in care in the living room, commandeered by Faith. There was no phone signal and the Internet was down. Everyone was bored.

"Joel, your turn," said Faith.

"No," said Joel.

"Oh come on, you can tell us!"

"No!" he screeched. "Okay, fine," he conceded. "You'd have found out anyway. I pushed somebody out of a window. There, you happy?"

"Who was it?" asked Faith warily.

"My mum," said Joel. Everyone gasped.

"What?" gasped Brandon. "You threw your mum out of a window?"

"I... I... She was annoying me!" cried Joel, storming out of the living room.

"Woah... well, today's been a busy day," said Viva.

* * *

**Pretty short chapter, but I didn't have anything else to write about. Demon wasn't in this chapter because he's in the next one quite prominently and the one after that. And also, this story has migrated to the new Dumping Ground section on , so that's where it'll be from now on.**

* * *

**Next time on The Dumping Ground Diaries...**

Demon's leaving...

**Episode 5 is called "The Trouble With Care"**


	5. Series 1 Episode 5:The Trouble With Care

I sat in the quiet room on the old sofa, facing the possible foster parents and trying to be on my best behaviour. I thought it was working. Ish. The foster parents were called the Massey's, and they looked like they were easily forgettable. Mr Massey had a red face, not too much hair, and a checked shirt, about forty-five-ish. Mrs Massey was about forty, and had long, scraggly blonde hair and wore a red cardigan. Boring. But hey, it was my closest shot at fostering in years, so I probably needed to behave... if I was going to get out of Elm Tree House. Mike had been chatting to them for a while, but I hadn't really listened. I just sat there with nothing to do.

Basically, Mike had found some foster parents – I don't know where he'd found them, maybe he just kept a few of them spare in his garage in his house – and they'd asked to possibly come and foster somebody, because they had nothing better to do with their boring little lives. They'd decided that I was the one they wanted to potentially foster, and Mike had arranged the meeting, and here I was.

Suddenly, Mr Massey abruptly stopped what he was saying and turned to Mike. Seriously, he said, "We're sorry Mr Milligan, but we've changed our mind. We don't you want to foster you any more. Instead, we want Viva."

* * *

**Mike, Tracy, Mark, Toby, Brandon, Skye, Joel, Tyler, Carmen, me (Demon), Johnny, Viva, Saskia, Gabriella (feeling a bit better now) and Faith in...**

**THE DUMPING GROUND DIARIES**

**Episode 5: The Trouble With Care**

* * *

Toby popped his tiny head out of the big green bush outside Elm Tree House. Then his arm popped through it. He was clutching a map in his tiny little hand. He dragged himself out of the bush and climbed out to face Brandon and Skye.

"Look, I found this!" he cried excitedly, showing it to Brandon and Skye. It was an old-looking map, which seemed to be showing Elm Tree House. It was dated, in tiny little handwriting in the corner, '1980'. There was a large, red X on the map. Toby handed the map to Brandon.

"X marks the spot!" cried Skye. "It's got to be treasure! Come on you two, let's go find it!" She grabbed Brandon and Toby's hands and dragged them after her as she ran to find the treasure. She stopped after a while, when she was in the garden.

"Are we anywhere near?" she asked.

"Um... yeah, we are," realised Brandon. "It's right here."

"So how do we get to it?" asked Toby.

"We dig it up!" cried Skye enthusiastically. "So we need something to dig it up _with_."

"Spade?" asked Toby.

"Trowel?" suggested Brandon.

"Desert spoon," decided Skye. "Wait here," she said to Toby and Brandon, and then she ran off. Toby and Brandon waited. A minute later, Skye came back with three desert spoons. She handed one each to Toby and Brandon.

"You know people are going to have to _eat _with these afterwards?" said Brandon.

"We can wash them. Or get Mark to do it," decided Skye, dropping to one knee. She began to dig away at the ground using the desert spoon. Toby and Brandon followed. They were on a treasure hunt.

* * *

"So, they want Viva?" I asked Mark in the kitchen. "Um... why? What did I do wrong? Don't answer that. I didn't do anything wrong! So why do they change their mind? And now it looks like Viva's going. Brilliant."

"Stop shouting and maybe we can work something out."

"I'M NOT SHOUTING!" I shouted. "And we can't work anything out, because there's no more foster parents. That was my first chance to get out of here since I came here like two and a half years ago. And now they want Viva."

"You're sounding jealous, you know," said Mark.

"Exactly!" I growled. Life was so unfair.

* * *

**Brandon's Diary**

**Monday 20 May 2013**

Well, that's just annoying. Me and Skye and Toby, we dug up the ground and about half of the garden but there was just another map with another X on it. And that was in the toy cupboard. So we went into the toy cupboard – we didn't need to use the spoons any more – and we found another map with another X on it. It looked like it was outside. But by then it was too late to go outside, so we have to wait until tomorrow, and then we'll find it. Maybe we'll even find the treasure now.

* * *

I knocked on Viva's bedroom door.

"Come in," she said from inside the room. I opened the door and walked in. Viva was at her desk, surrounded by suitcases. Her room was bare, with absolutely nothing in it apart from her bed. She looked really pretty with her really long, black hair and kind eyes.

"So, you're getting fostered then. Well done," I said.

"I'm sorry, Demon. I know they said they wanted you."

"It's okay I suppose."

"Now we're never going to see each other again. The Masseys live ages away, and they're really keen to have me as soon as possible, because everything's ready, so I'm leaving tomorrow."

"We can still text each other and stuff."

"Well..." said Viva.

"Well?" I asked.

"No we can't," she said.

"What?" I asked.

"Right, I'm just going to get this over and done with – I'm dumping you. We're never going to see each other anyway, and I've already got a new boyfriend. Luke. We've been going out for about two months."

The shock hit me like a tidal wave. "You were two-timing?" She didn't answer. I grabbed one of her suitcases.

"Hey, that's my clothes!" she shrieked.

The suitcase was heavy but I picked it up and ran out of Viva's room, and through the corridors until I reached the top of the stairs. I unzipped the suitcase and all of Viva's clothes tumbled out, falling down the stairs. She screamed. "Idiot!" she muttered.

I'd made my decision by now anyway. Nobody was ever going to want me at Elm Tree House, nobody was going to want to foster me, Viva was going, and she was a stupid two-timing idiot. So there was only one thing for me to do. Run away.

* * *

My last attempt at escape from Elm Tree House was on my first day. And I got hit by a speeding car, so that went well. I made sure not to do that this time. I'd packed a few things, but not a lot, because I didn't need a lot. I'd creeped outside my room at about 11pm, when Mike – he was doing the overnight – was asleep and everybody else was too. I'd tiptoed downstairs secretively. I'd reached the front door, and opened it, and walked across to the big iron gate. I'd slipped it open. And now I was free to escape.

I walked and walked along the road for what seemed like _ages_, but then suddenly I felt a hand on my shoulder. I turned around. It was somebody wearing a hoodie. I couldn't tell the age or gender of the person, because it was too dark to see.

"Woah, where are you going?" she asked. I recognised that voice. Oh my god, I recognised it. It was-

"I hate to break it to you like this," said Elektra, taking her hood down, "but I'm back for good."

* * *

"So why have you come back?" I asked as me and Elektra walked back to Elm Tree House.

"Melissa. She's an idiot. She decided to chuck me out because she needed more space or something. Pointless."

"Well, you can't just come back and ask to get a new room."

"Can't I?"

"Oh wait, you can! Viva's leaving tomorrow."

"Viva? Aren't you angry?"

"No. She stole my foster parents and dumped me. And she was a two-timer."

"Ooh, bad..."

"So Viva's room is free from tomorrow. You can go there."

"What about my room?"

"Yeah, about that... Well, a few people kind of moved bedrooms, and now Brandon and Toby are in there. And they've painted it brown."

"They painted my room?" asked Elektra in disbelief. "And who's Toby?"

"He's been here for a few months. He's like a tinier version of Mark."

"Oh... right then," said Elektra.

* * *

_The next day_

Viva clambered into the car, which looked like it was sagging from the weight of all of her suitcases. Mr and Mrs Massey smiled cheerily. Viva waved, and everybody else waved back. Then the car sped off, and it was goodbye Viva.

Skye, Brandon and Toby came running round to the front of the house. They'd been round the back of it before. "Found it! Found it!" cried Skye.

"Found what?" asked Tracy.

"The treasure!" cried Brandon. He was clutching a massive sack. "It's full of chocolate and sweets!" he shouted.

"Oh, you found it!" cried Tracy. "We made that for you months ago! That's great!"  
Brandon giggled as he, Toby and Skye grabbed sweets and started eating.

* * *

**Elektra's back! Hope you liked it :-) Please review!**

**Next time...**

As Gina's in hospital having a baby, Demon and Lily consider getting back together...

**Episode 6 is titled "Birth, Rebirth".**


	6. Series 1 Episode 6: Birth, Rebirth

Elektra bursted into Brandon and Toby's room. "You've taken my shoes, haven't you? Where are they? Tell me!" she screeched, grabbing Toby and shaking him.

"Woah, calm down!" shouted Brandon, suddenly grabbing Elektra's hair and pulling it. She let go of Toby, who clattered to the floor. Elektra screamed and kicked Brandon, before storming out of the room.

Mark watched her storming off. "This is happening too many times..." he mused.

* * *

"Guys, this is exciting!" said Mark at ten o'clock in the morning.

"Doubt it, if you're involved," replied Elektra.

"I'm so glad you're back, Elektra," replied Mark sarcastically. "But seriously, everybody listen up," he said. We were all in the kitchen because apparently he had some exciting news.

"What is it?" asked Skye, obviously bored.

"Gina's gone into hospital. She's probably going to give birth today."

Everybody looked really shocked, but I don't exactly know why, because we already knew she was having a baby at around this time. But anyway, everybody looked shocked.

"Can we visit her in the hospital?" asked Carmen.

"Yes," replied Mike. "So let's go, now! Mike's gonna wheel out the minibus and we're off to hospital to say hello to Gina for a bit. But we're gonna have to clear out when we're told to. So, are we ready?"

Everybody cheered and filed out of the kitchen rowdily. Apart from me, Joel, Gabriella and Elektra.

"Do you actually care about this?" I asked Gabriella. She nodded. "What? But it's just Gina having a baby. I've got loads better things I could do."

"Yeah, exactly," said Joel.

"Come on, let's go," said Elektra. "I can't believe you have to share a room with that thing!" she hissed to me, gesturing over her shoulder to Joel.

"WAIT!" cried Mark. "Forgot something. Elektra, Brandon, Toby, you've got to stay behind. I know it's cruel, but it's pretty much essential. Tracy's staying here to supervise you, but... to be honest, we need you three to get along. We can't have you three arguing against each other all the time. It's annoying and unnecessary. So you three are going in the quiet room until you learn to get on. Tracy'll get you food."

"What?" spat Elektra. "You can't just lock three kids in the quiet room!"

"I can, and will, Elektra," said Mike, coming out from the office. "And lastly, we've got a visitor coming with us to say hello to Gina as well."

"Who is it?" asked Saskia inquisitively.

The door swung open and the figure in it stepped forward.

"Are we going yet?" asked Lily Kettle.

* * *

**Mike, Tracy, Mark, Elektra (back for good), Toby, Brandon, Skye, Joel, Tyler, Carmen, me (Demon), Johnny, Saskia, Gabriella and Faith in...**

**THE DUMPING GROUND DIARIES**

**Episode 6: Birth, Rebirth**

* * *

"GUYS!" exclaimed Gina happily. She lay in a hospital bed, dressed in a bland hospital gown, a contrast to her usual attire of a floral patterned colourful dress. She looked happy. I had no idea why. She was being rushed by nine kids and two adults. "Oh, it's great to see you guys!" she exclaimed. Carmen ran in for a hug. Bit babyish. Gina hugged her and let her go. "Saskia! You came back!" she cried. Saskia smiled. "Mike, it's good to see you too!"

"Great to see you, Gina," he replied.

"Where's Elektra and Brandon?" asked Gina.

"Oh, they're back at Elm Tree House. It's complicated," said Mark.

"You must be Mark," guessed Gina. "Tracy told me about you. Wait, where's Tracy? Have you left half of this lot behind?"

"Tracy's supervising Elektra and Brandon," replied Mike.

Suddenly Gina cringed. "Owwww!" she wailed. The kids backed off.

"It's okay, it's okay," said a nurse, rushing in to the room. "Who's this lot?"

"I used to work as their boss," said Gina.

"Well, actually _I _was their boss," corrected Mike.

"Be quiet, Mike, I'm in pain!" said Gina.

"They need to get out of here. I'm sorry, kids, but Mrs Conway here is giving birth some time very soon and a bunch of kids isn't going to help," said the nurse with an Irish accent. "Sorry," she added again. So, everybody filed out, waving goodbye to Gina, who waved back cheerily despite the obvious pain she was in.

"Scoot," said Mark, and the kids all ran away. Mike wheeled him round.

"Did you just let that lot loose in a hospital?" he asked. Mark cringed.

* * *

"Since when did hospitals have gift shops?" asked Skye, looking eagerly at a jar with liquid and some solid round objects in it.

"This isn't a gift shop, Skye, this is just another room. And that's a jar with some kidney stones in it," said Gabriella. Skye cringed and put the jar back on its shelf.

Suddenly, Lily grabbed me and dragged me out of the room. She found a door on the corridor and checked that it was empty. She pulled me into it and sat down. I sat down next to her.

"What is it?" I asked, just a little bit confused.

"Look, I know this is going to sound _really _poetic," she said. "But I was thinking a bit."

"Were you now?" I said impatiently.

"And I decided something quite important..." Lily continued. "Since we're in a hospital because of a _birth_, I thought that maybe at the same time there could be a _rebirth_..." She looked at me.

"A rebirth of what?" I asked, even more confused.

"Our love," she said. She paused. "Do you want to be my boyfriend again?"

I thought long and hard. For a long time. "Three things."

"Well?" she asked.

"One. That is really, really poetic." She laughed. "Two. You can't just come grovelling back to me when you feel like it, after you dumped me." Her smile faded. "And three. You're ugly anyway. So no, I don't want to go out with you. In fact, I'd rather go out with... I don't know, Carmen or someone. So, goodbye."

I stood up and left the room, leaving one very sad Lily Kettle.

* * *

"LET! ME! OUT!" yelled Elektra, thumping her fists on the door to the quiet room. She was furious. It was half past eleven, and she had been stuck in the room with Toby and Brandon for an hour and a half. She was hungry, bored and annoyed, and she wouldn't have wanted to share a room with two seven-year-olds in the first place, let alone two seven-year-olds who she really didn't like. She needed to get out. The question spinning around in her mind was: HOW?

She turned to Brandon and Toby, a thought in her head. "Toby, Brandon, if we're gonna get out of here, I'll need your help."

* * *

In a hospital corridor, Lily found Carmen. She walked up to her, and looked around to make sure that nobody was around.

"Guess what?" she whispered.

"I don't know," responded Carmen.

"Demon totally fancies you," she said.

"What, really?" asked Carmen, going slightly red.

"Really," nodded Lily, leaving the corridor.

* * *

Carmen walked up to me in another corridor.

"Demon? Do you fancy me?" she asked.

"What? No!" I replied.

"Okay... it's just that Lily said that you did."

"What? Well, don't trust Lily, she's just annoyed because she asked if I wanted to go out with her again and I rejected her."

"What?!"

"Well, she deserved it anyway. I don't even like you."

"Oh, that's nice," said Carmen, a little bit offended. "I'm not _that _bad, am I? Surely you can say _one _nice thing about me?"

"Um... you're pretty, I guess. But that's all I can think of. Bye," I said.

"Bye," she repeated. We walked in opposite directions along the corridor.

* * *

"We can come in now," said Mark excitedly. All of us kids, rounded up at last, filed into the room. We saw Gina, sitting up in the hospital bed, looking relieved. In her arms was a tiny baby.

"Aww, it's so cute," said Carmen. "Is it a boy or a girl?"

"It's a girl. I'm gonna call her Isabelle."

"She's so beautiful," said Saskia. And she was.

* * *

Brandon was holding Elektra's head. Toby was holding Elektra's legs. Elektra was lying completely horizontally, in the air, with her feet facing the quiet room door. If Brandon and Toby dropped her, she'd fall.

"3... 2... 1... CHARGE!" she cried, and Toby and Brandon pushed her forwards. Her feet burst through the quiet room door, and then the rest of her body, as Brandon and Toby pushed her along. She came out at the other side.

"Come on Elektra, help us get out," pleaded Toby from inside the room.

"No chance," said Elektra. "Fend for yourselves," she added, strolling away.

* * *

**Sorry there's no diary entries in this chapter, it's just that I needed to get on with the story without interruptions. And for the record, that's the second Quiet Room door that Elektra's broken. The first time she broke it with a hammer back in Chapter 10 of The Demon Traylen Files, with Demon's help. So Elektra hates the Quiet Room door! Hope you liked this chapter :D. Please review!**

**Next time...**

When Brandon gets bad test results and may have to re-sit Year 2 at school, the Dumping Ground kids decide that he's gonna re-sit the test... and they're gonna give him the answers...

**Episode 7 is entitled "Stupid Brandon".**


	7. Series 1 Episode 7: Stupid Brandon

"NOOOOOOOO!" screamed Brandon, running through the big front door into Elm Tree House clutching a small piece of paper in his hand, wearing his red school uniform. Still screaming "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!", he ran up the stairs. I could hear a door being slammed. Finally, the shouting ended.

"Has he been like that the whole time since school finished?" I asked Skye, who was walking through the door dressed in an identical uniform, with a grey skirt instead of Brandon's black trousers.

"Pretty much," she admitted, sighing. It was 3:45pm on a Wednesday. Whatever had happened that had made Brandon mad, it had happened at school.

"So why's he screaming then?" I asked.

Skye's reply was... unexpected. "He's done really, really bad on a test. He's going to have to re-sit the whole of Year 2 at school."

* * *

**Mike, Tracy, Mark (who's got flu at the moment so nobody's going near him), Elektra (who got money for a new quiet room door taken out of her allowance), Toby, Brandon (who's stupid apparently), Skye, Joel, Tyler, Carmen, me (Demon), Johnny, Saskia, Gabriella and Faith in...**

**THE DUMPING GROUND DIARIES**

**Episode 7: Stupid Brandon**

* * *

"He said I was pretty. He actually said I was pretty!" cried Carmen, pacing up and down in her bedroom. "Does that mean he likes me or not?" she asked Saskia, who was sitting on her bed.

"Um... I don't know," replied Saskia. "I know that's not exactly helpful," she added. "But have you heard the _big _news?" she asked.

"Oh, thanks for changing the subject," said Carmen sarcastically.

"Yeah... whatever, but the big news is Brandon, right. It turns out he's done really badly on this important test at school, and he got like 20% or something and he's going to have to do Year 2 at school all over again!"

"Oh my GOD," said Carmen. "I didn't know Brandon was stupid!"

"Well, I didn't either," said Saskia, "but it looks like he is stupid. Unless... I don't know, they marked the test wrong or messed something up. Hey, I'm going to go and find out exactly what's happening. I'm asking Brandon!" She ran out of the room.

"This isn't gonna go anywhere, Saskia!" called Carmen. "He's just gonna be angry! He's not gonna say anything!" Sighing, she stood up and followed Saskia into Toby and Brandon's room. Big and messy, toys and games cluttered the floor. The boys had painted pictures onto the murky brown walls. It was very different to how it had been with Elektra in there. Brandon was sitting on his bed, looking very sad and grumpy. Toby wasn't in the room.

"Hi Brandon," said Saskia in a friendly tone, sitting on the end of Brandon's bed. "Are you okay?" Brandon shook his head angrily. "Well, don't worry. It's not like it really matters. So you have to do the whole of Year 2 again. It's no big deal, because after you've done this year again, you'll be even more clever than you were before! And then you might be able to go straight into Year 4, because you're so clever! It's gonna be alright!" Brandon looked up at Saskia. His eyes were red with tears.

"Yes, maybe it's gonna be alright..." he said calmly, peacefully, sniffing loudly. Suddenly, the door banged open and in stormed Gabriella angrily.

"No, it's _not _all right!" she cried. "He should have the right to carry on with school like everybody else! People can't frown down on him just because of his intelligence! He needs to do a re-test. We can sort it out, we can actually plead to his school, and we'll sort out another test."

"But Gabriella," sniffed Brandon, "I'm not clever."

"Look, this is why we need to get a re-test! This result has... _destroyed _his confidence!"

"Yes, but I am stupid, Gabriella," huffed Brandon. He showed her the sheet of paper. Gabriella read it:

* * *

_YEAR 2 GENERAL TEST – ALLGREEN PRIMARY SCHOOL_

_Results for: Brandon Gold, Class: 2E_

_English: 28%_

_Mathematics: 22% _

_Science: 17%_

_Average score: 22.33%_

_This is an unsatisfactory score and so Brandon will have to partially re-sit Year 2._

* * *

"But that's not all!" cried Brandon. "I'm genuinely not clever. If I had a re-test I'd just fail even more."

"Poor Brandon..." said Saskia. "No, hang on!" she cried. "I've got an idea! I don't know if it'll work or not, and it'll be risky, not to mention expensive..."

"What is it then?" asked Carmen.

"Well..."

* * *

"This is perfect!" said Skye as she hopped out of the minibus. It was, really rather conveniently, Brandon's parents evening. The perfect time to get the test answers. It would be suspicious if the older kids like Saskia and Gabriella were at the school, because they didn't even go to primary school, but it was also parents evening for Toby, Joel and Skye. Mike wandered down a corridor to Brandon's classroom and waited outside with Toby, Brandon, Joel and Skye for a while. Then Brandon's teacher opened the classroom door and said that Mike could come in. Mike had a ten minute slot with Brandon's teacher. Ten minutes of espionage... and stuff.

"So... the sheets will be in the office, right?" asked Joel.

"Right," said Skye. "Let's go get 'em."

The four youngsters crept along the corridors until they reached the office. Peering in, they noticed that nobody was in the office. Perfect. Skye pushed against the door. It didn't open. She noticed the code lock on it.

"Stupid me," she said, entering the code she had seen so many times when she was looking over the shoulders of members of staff. 1234. Obvious.

Conveniently, the papers were on the desk in front of the door. Brandon noticed them and picked up the sheet on the top. It was the answer sheet. Greatadidoodah. He folded it up and put it in his pocket. Then all of the young kids ran out of the room and walked back to the corridor. Mike came out of the classroom. The kids smiled innocently. Mike shrugged.

* * *

"Hello?" called Gina as she walked into Elm Tree House, carrying her week-and-a-half-old baby Isabelle in her arms. She made her way to the living room. Johnny was sulking by the pool table: Carmen had just dumped him. Tyler, Faith and Gabriella were watching TV. All of them stopped what they were doing and flocked to Gina as soon as she entered the room. Or rather, they flocked to _Isabelle_.

"Aww..."

"He's so cute..."

Gina sighed. It was going to be like this for a while.

* * *

"So, you're ready?" asked Skye. They had pleaded to the school for a re-test, saying that Mike had agreed that it was fine. And finally, the school had agreed. The only bad thing was, it was on a Saturday morning.

The kids had bought an earpiece communication thing, so they could talk to Brandon. It was cheap, but they'd been assured by ebay that it was going to be effective and work perfectly. They were going to feed Brandon the answers.

"I'm ready," said Brandon.

"Good luck," said Mike, and Brandon walked into the classroom. Mike and Skye left the school, speeding away to reach Elm Tree House.

* * *

"Okay, here's the first answer," said Carmen at Elm Tree House. She was speaking into her end of the earpiece communication device thing, ready to feed Brandon the first answer.

* * *

"OKAY, HERE'S THE FIRST ANSWER!" came Carmen's voice, really loudly, through the earpiece. The teacher looked up from her desk.

"Brandon, what's that noise?" she asked.

"Umm..." faltered Brandon.

The teacher walked over to Brandon. "An earpiece?" she asked. "You're cheating?" She yanked the device away from him.

* * *

Brandon returned to Elm Tree House at lunchtime sadly. He told the kids how their plan hadn't worked, and he'd had to do the test by himself. He was really disappointed. There was nothing he could do.

* * *

Tracy walked excitedly over to the breakfast table the next morning, handing Brandon a white envelope with his school crest printed on. "Came for you this morning!" she said, excited. Brandon tore it open eagerly. His eyes widened.

"Oh, I'm sorry Brandon, but at least you tried..." said Gabriella.

"YES!" whooped Brandon.

"Oh," responded Gabriella, realising she was wrong. Brandon shoved the piece of paper in her face.

* * *

_YEAR 2 GENERAL TEST – ALLGREEN PRIMARY SCHOOL_

_Results for: Brandon Gold, Class: 2E_

_English: 91%_

_Mathematics: 85% _

_Science: 84%_

_Average score: 86.66%_

* * *

"I thought we weren't feeding you answers any more," said Saskia.

"I'm clever!" cheered Brandon. "I did it by myself, it must have been you and Gabriella saying that I was clever enough, and that made me believe I was clever enough! I'm clever!"

"Yipadidoodah, clever Brandon," murmured Elektra.

* * *

**Brandon's Diary**

**Saturday June 8 2013**

Today I did the reetest and I wosunt allowd the ansers but I think I did okay.

**Sunday June 9 2013**

Yaay! I did it! I'm clever! I did it! And more importently, Skye only got 80% when she did the test so I can laff in her face all week!

* * *

**Next time on _The Dumping Ground Diaries..._**

An accident causes Elm Tree House to become completely flooded, and the Dumping Ground kids try to work out which one of it actually started the flood. Everybody is a suspect... The house is deemed just about safe temporarily, but as the kids return, it transpires that Johnny might have to share with Demon and Joel, who both end up protesting... Mike has to consider moving the children to new care homes, anarchy breaks out as rooms have to be shared, and the future of Elm Tree is in question.

**Episode 8 is called "Whodunnit?"**


	8. Series 1 Episode 8: Whodunnit?

**Johnny's Diary**

**Saturday June 15 2013**

This diary is a bit soggy and a tiny bit wet now, but I still need to tell you exactly what happened on the day of the flood. That's today, this morning in fact, at about 9am. It's important and Faith said it's important I write about it.

I was sitting at my desk writing when, suddenly, I felt a drop of water on my cheek. I looked up. Another drop of water. And then another. It was like a tiny shower inside. Then I saw the ceiling. It looked like it was buckling, like it was going to, I don't know, fall apart. And then it did. It caved in on me and water came streaming down, completely covering me. It was flooding my room and seeping through the carpet. I was surrounded by water. My bedroom was effectively a lake. Elm Tree House was flooded.

* * *

**Mike, Tracy, Mark, Elektra, Toby, Brandon (turns out he did loads of studying and that's how he got 85% on that test), Skye, Joel (I blame him personally, I'm just waiting for some evidence), Tyler, Carmen, me (Demon), Johnny, Saskia, Gabriella and Faith in...**

**THE DUMPING GROUND DIARIES**

**Episode 8: Whodunnit?**

* * *

**Faith's Diary**

**Saturday June 15 2013**

So Johnny came screaming from the room yapping about all the water, but we already knew that – well, those of us in the lounge at least, because water was dripping from the ceiling. To start with we said it was some sort of bizarre Tyler prank, but then Johnny came in screaming. Mike took a quick look at Johnny's room, and then Tracy and Mark made us all file out of the house. So there we all are, and it's _freezing _and it's a Saturday morning and we all don't really want to be there. _Then _it gets serious. Mike comes out of Elm Tree House and says that Johnny's bedroom floor has just collapsed and that the lounge is flooded. Eek! Bad one... And he says he's going to quickly phone up a local company to get a man in quick to see if we can go back into the house. And we're all panicking a bit because even though it's June, it's freezing. We want to get back inside. But Mike says if the house is too flooded, he's got no idea what to do. We're all stood there waiting, and then suddenly Gabriella realises that Elektra's gone. But where is she? That's what everybody's asking, and then Gabriella decides to act the hero, and she's about to run into the house to save Elektra or whatever, but then Elektra comes strolling out of the house, really casually, like nothing's even happened!

**Skye's Diary**

**Saturday June 15 2013**

So when Elektra came out she had wet hair and she was looking normal like nothing had happened, which was a bit weird but, hey, it's Elektra Perkins, who knows what's happening? And she's all like "Well you could have told me!" And then Gabriella asked where she was, and Elektra said "I was in the shower, duh! And now I'm freezing! It's 9am in the morning, it's _freezing _and I've got wet hair! Actually, I don't care about the water – what is it? Has Tyler had another wetting-the-bed accident that got a bit out of hand? Well, anyway, I'm going back inside". And then she just walked back inside. Mike went in after her, shouting, and then we waited for a bit and then Mike dragged Elektra back outside.

**Gabriella's Diary**

**Saturday 15 June 2013**

Mike and Elektra argued for a bit, and then we waited for about fifteen minutes and then a man came up into the house, and he asked Mike a few questions. By this point we really were freezing to death, so we wanted the man to be quick. So he came back outside after about five minutes and talked to Mike and then he just left in his van. Mike said it was fine for us to go back inside, but we had to stay out of the lounge and Johnny's bedroom, and he said that he'd have to find somewhere else for Johnny to go, and that it would also be best, just for the time being, to move Tyler and Saskia – their rooms weren't soaked, but it was best because there was a possibility of flooding in there, if the water from Johnny's room spread somehow. And Johnny started protesting and complaining about all his stuff getting wet and he kind of got into a flap. Tyler was also a bit annoyed because Elektra had made fun of him by saying that he'd had an accident, but he tried not to make a fuss, because according to him, that was now Johnny's job. We went back inside the house. It was a shock, I can tell you! Absolutely everything ruined, covered in water and soaked. The sofa, the carpet, everything. I'd have thought that by now the carpet would have soaked it up, but there were still puddles all over the floor. I walked into the lounge – it was the same: puddles everywhere. There was water on all the sofas, the pool table. _Oh no! _I thought, because I saw the TV and the computer – water and electricity don't mix, I told myself, and I could see that because the TV and computer were both completely broken. Johnny, being concerned obviously, went upstairs quickly to look at the state of his bedroom. Tyler and Demon followed him. Johnny started howling about how his room was soaked and the ceiling had gone, and Tyler and Demon started laughing at him...

**Tyler's Diary**

**Saturday 15 June 2013**

...Well, you've got to at least have a _little _bit of fun...

**Gabriella's Diary**

**Saturday 15 June 2013**

...And then nothing much happened for a bit. But then Mike said that there would be a house meeting at lunchtime, and it was important. Naturally, everybody guessed it was about the flood, and the effects of it. So at lunchtime, we all went downstairs to find out what was happening about us and our home.

**Joel's Diary**

**Saturday 15 June 2013**

So basically, this is what Mike said: "Okay guys, so we need to talk about the flood." (I might be getting some of this wrong, but I was too busy eating to give Mike my full attention). "Does anybody have any information about how the flood started? Nobody's gonna be in trouble, we just want to know." And Demon said, "I bet it's Joel." And everybody looked at him, and I was a bit offended actually. And Demon continued, "Well, yesterday when we all in the lounge, and he got thrashed at pool by Saskia, and he was having a big strop and he said he wished that we all just got _washed away_." He paused. "Just a guess, of course," he smiled. Now I seemed to be the guilty person. Mike turned to me. "Joel?" he asked. "That was just a little threat, I didn't actually mean anything," I said. "And actually, I think it might as well have been Gabriella or Faith." The two girls frowned and looked up from their food. "Well," I said, "they're always the last ones to clean their teeth and go to bed, right? Well maybe one of them left the tap on, and it kept running until this morning, when it finally overflowed. And the bathroom is above Johnny's room, I think." "Ah..." Mike said. "Gabriella? Faith?" The two girls shook their heads. "Well, I would be surprised if it was you, anyway." "Anybody else have any ideas? And please, I don't want mad theories, I need evidence, reasons"

"Toby, Brandon and Skye like mucking around with things, maybe it was them," suggested Demon. Toby looked appalled. "Well it could have been you, or Tyler, playing a stupid practical joke!" he shouted. "Pardon me, I'm sure," muttered Demon. "Nobody pays much attention to Carmen or Saskia," said Skye. "So maybe they did it to be recognised." "Carmen _did _steal everybody's personal things and trash the house because she wanted to be recognised before," realised Mike. "But that's not proof, that's in the past. Well, we seem to have accused everybody in the whole house now, and we're nowhere closer to finding out who started the flood. Brilliant. Just brilliant. Right, let's sort out the room changes then."

* * *

**Carmen's Diary**

**Saturday 15 June 2013**

"I don't want to!" pleaded Tyler. It was actually quite funny how stressed he was getting. "Please! Don't make me!" He just kept shouting. Mike was carrying Tyler's things to his new room. He was going to share with Toby and Brandon, and he was dreading it. He didn't like Toby and Brandon, and Toby and Brandon didn't like him. Also, _Tyler sharing with a six-year-old and a seven-year-old?! _I couldn't wait to see how this turned out. Meanwhile, Saskia was also a bit annoyed about the room changes, but she decided not to show it. She isn't the sort of person who gets angry. She was going to move in with me, which was brilliant! I'm like Saskia's best friend! It's going to be like a massive sleepover! And Mike says that Saskia and Tyler will have to stay in their new rooms for two weeks, which is great. But Johnny's really stressed: he's having to move in with Joel and Demon, which he really doesn't like the sound of. Everybody knows how much he hates Johnny. But most of all, I feel sorry for Demon – it's bad enough having one person you hate sharing your room – Joel – but now he's got Johnny as well. Poor Demon. I don't know how he's going to cope. I'm expecting manly fighting and shouting coming from that room in the next few days.

**Johnny's Diary**

**Saturday 15 June 2013**

Joel and Demon? That's who I'm sharing with? I thought Tyler had it bad, going in with Toby and Brandon, but this is rubbish. Joel's alright, but _Demon_? I'm going to _dread _the next month. Mike says I'm going to have to stay in with Joel and Demon for a month at least, because a new floor has to go into my room, and that could take ages. It might take up to three months. Three months with Joel and Demon? Grr... I hate my life.

* * *

**Saskia's Diary**

**Saturday 15 June 2013**

Mark called us for a house meeting tonight, before dinner. He said he knew who the culprit was. We were all waiting, and everybody was just thinking "_Demon, Demon, Demon"_ but then Mark said it was himself! Everybody was really shocked; we hadn't considered the possibility that it might have been a _careworker _who had started the flood. He said he was exceptionally sorry, and he'd try to make it up to us in any way he could, starting with free ice cream, which was nice, but he can probably do better. He said he accidentally left a tap on last night in the bathroom. How did he know? He was the last one in the bathroom, after Gabriella and Faith, at about 11pm because he was getting ready to go to bed. That made him seem like a kid, when he said that. But he must have left a tap running, because the flood had apparently started in the bathroom, above Johnny's room. He apologised for quite a while, and then announced that to make up for the flood, he was going to let us get anything we wanted for dinner – burgers, chips, pizza – and he was going to pay! Tracy said he didn't need to, but Mark insisted. So that was nice.

I guess we've learned some things today. Not to rule people out just because they're supposed to be responsible, for instance. Not to leave taps running. And, in Elektra's case, _not _to go outside on a Saturday morning with wet hair.

* * *

**IMPORTANT NOTE: Changed my pen name. Don't know how quickly it'll update, but I'm now ThatPersonWhoWritesAboutDemo n3. Fancied a change.**

**I don't think there _is _a bathroom above Johnny's room, but this is the land of fiction, embrace it! And ignore the ever-changing structural positioning thingy of the Dumping Ground! RANDOM FACT: This episode was originally Episode Four, but I didn't want to have two crash-bang-wallop stories in a row – the Prank Day in Episode 3, and then the flood, so I put it back to Episode 7, and then to Episode 8. Hope you liked this episode, the LONGEST ONE EVER! Well, of my story of course. Oh, by the way, I really enjoyed _Seriously Funny _on Friday - brilliant episode enhancing some of my favourite characters. Brilliantly-written debut from Matt Evans.**

**Next time on _The Dumping Ground Diaries_**

Everything's happening, at Elm Tree House and in the big wide world. Johnny's being bullied by big kids, Elektra and Demon are _fighting _big kids, and some of the kids like Carmen and Tyler are feeling that they're stuck in the middle. They're not little kids, they're not responsible big kids like Faith and Gabriella. And they need to do something about it... Meanwhile, Elektra's forcing Skye to choose between Toby and Brandon, and Carmen's thinking about boys...

**Episode 9 is called "Stuck in the Middle". And you're going to like it. A lot. activate hypnotic effect. No, but seriously, I think it's going to be quite a good episode. **


	9. Series 1 Episode 9: Stuck in the Middle

I was sat in the humid, sticky classroom revelling in the sweltering, bright sunlight, whilst finishing my long and complicated history essay for Mr. Zee-Zeeh. Everybody else in my Year 8 class, including me, thinks that Mr. Zee-Zeeh has a slightly weird name. It's a nice name, but slightly unusual. Since when was 'Zee-Zeeh' a valid surname for a History teacher? Or anybody? History is the only subject I pay any attention to because I really like it – battles and stuff. The problem with history though is that there's _so much work _to do. I'd been made to stay behind in the history classroom to finish 2000 words on 'Food Complications in Europe during the First World War'.

I finished my essay, stood up and put it on Mr. Zee-Zeeh's desk, and then I left the room. As I entered the corridor I saw a small crowd gathered. I walked over to see what was going on. To my surprise, Johnny was sitting on the floor helplessly with no trousers on. Two bulky-looking Year 11 boys stood over him, leering and sneering.

"What's happening?" I whispered to Belle, a girl in my class.

"They pantsed him!" she whispered back excitedly. I walked forward to face the Year 11 bullies.

"Johnny, you're pathetic," I said to Johnny.

"I know, right?" snorted one of the Year 11s enthusiastically.

"Which is exactly why you have no right to do that to him!" I shouted, rounding on the Year 11s.

"Try to stop us and we'll do the same to you!" said one of the bullies. "Now, take off his boxers."

Tears started to form in Johnny's eyes.

"Wait!" cried the first bully capriciously. "First, take that other boy's pants off."

"Me?" I stutered. "M-m-me?" I stammered. I was acting. They wouldn't know what had hit them.

"Yes," said the second bully. He stepped towards me.

"N-n-n-no! P-please!" I stammered. Once he was right next to me, I head-butted him and he fell to the ground groaning. I spotted Elektra in the corner of my eye, on the other side of the corridor.

"Elektra!" I called.

"What?" she asked.

"Come here."

"What happened?"

"Johnny got his pants taken off." Elektra erupted with laughter. I kept my gaze on the bullies. The first one was helping up the second.

"Elektra, if I'm gonna get suspended for this, can you at least get suspended too?"

"Thought you'd never ask." Elektra punched the bully who I hadn't head-butted, right on the mouth. The crowd gasped. At the same time, me and Elektra kicked the boys in the shins. They toppled and fell to the ground. Then they scampered away pathetically. Elektra high-fived me and then walked away. The crowd was in awe.

"Demon, how'd you learn to do that?" I heard Belle ask, but I just walked away. It was ten to one, and I needed lunch.

* * *

**Mike, Tracy, Mark, Elektra, Toby, Brandon, Skye, Joel, Tyler, Carmen, me (Demon), Johnny (still haven't stopped laughing about that), Saskia, Gabriella and Faith in...**

**THE DUMPING GROUND DIARIES**

**Episode 9: Stuck in the Middle**

* * *

"Pick," said Elektra. "Come on, you know you want to." She was facing Skye in the corridor. Skye tried to walk past Elektra, but Elektra blocked the way. "If you had to pick between Toby and Brandon. Come on, just tell me. You're only letting one of them down."

"Why are you doing this?" asked Skye.

"I want to tell Toby or Brandon that you hate them."

"But I don't, they're my friends!" protested Skye.

"Just pick. Ruin someone's day."

"I don't know!"

"Stuck in the middle, are we? Well, I want to disappoint one of those two by the end of today, and you're going to tell me which one," said Elektra, skulking away down the corridor.

"Weirdo," murmured Skye.

"Sorry, _what did you say_?" asked Elektra threateningly.

"Nothing."

* * *

**Carmen's Diary**

**Monday June 17 2013**

Mike says he's arranging a short little meeting for today at six o'clock. I've got no idea what it's about, but he says it's just for me, Demon, Johnny, Tyler and Saskia. I don't like not knowing, but I guess we'll find out at six o'clock.

* * *

"You lot need to learn about responsibility, and fast," said Mike. "You're at the age where you're no longer little kids who need helping with everything, but you're not like Elektra or Faith, well Faith anyway, big kids who can look after themselves perfectly. You're stuck in the middle, people are only beginning to take you seriously. So how about we give you a bit more responsibility? It's what you deserve. To see if you can cope with it. You can be more responsible for yourself and if you manage to cope well then me and Gina can stop nagging you about everything because we'll know you're capable."

"Sounds alright," said Saskia. "More responsibility, yeah."

"So it's agreed?" asked Mike. "More responsibility?"

"More responsibility," agreed Saskia.

"Yeah, whatever," said Johnny.

"You've had this talk with everybody at this age, haven't you?" I asked.

"Yeah, kind of," admitted Mike.

* * *

**Saskia's Diary**

**Monday June 17 2013**

So after all that it was just a crummy little meeting about responsibility? Still, at least it sounds quite good – more responsibility so we don't need Gina and Mike nagging us about everything. I'm just a little bit worried about giving Demon and Tyler more responsibility...

* * *

"Roll up, roll up, for the Secrets Auction!" I roared. A crowd had gathered in the living room ready for this, my plan for easy money. There was only one careworker in the house, because it was Tracy's day off and Mike was ill, but that careworker was Mark. He wouldn't notice anything had happened. In fact, he was making dinner now. Something horrible and unappealing, but I didn't care. I was ready for the auction. I'd snuck into the office and stole Johnny's file, ready to find and dish out some juicy secrets. Johnny himself was out somewhere. Everything was coming together for me to auction off all of his personal secrets.

"Right, roll up! Come and get all of Johnny Taylor's personal, embarrassing secrets! For a small fee, of course," I said theatrically.

"What? I don't want to have to pay," said Saskia.

"Yeah, and you really shouldn't be doing this," said Faith.

"What? You don't agree with this? Well, maybe I should just go and steal _your _file and auction off _your _secrets. As long as nobody tells Johnny, it won't matter. The first secret is coming up now. It's a pretty juicy one that I think it's safe to say, would embarrass Johnny _a lot_..."

* * *

After 30 minutes, Johnny's most personal secrets had been revealed to the people who bought them. I'd made a whole £15 from about 20 secrets, and almost everybody had bought a secret. Only Gabriella and Faith hadn't. Mark hadn't found anything out, and everybody was soon giggling with Johnny's secrets. Suddenly, Mike burst into the lounge.

"What?!" I asked. "You're supposed to be ill, you know, coughing, sneezing."

"Well, I thought I'd come in, see how Mark's doing- wait, what's going on here?" he asked.

"Umm... nothing," I said.

"No, something has happened," said Faith. "And actually, it's quite serious. Demon's being auctioning off Johnny's secrets to people. He's made around £15, and embarrassed and humiliated Johnny."

Mike put on his angry face. I was dead.

* * *

"Do you want some help?" asked Carmen, walking into the kitchen. I was mopping the floor as a punishment for revealing all of Johnny's secrets.

"No, I'll be alright," I said.

"No, it's okay, I'm happy to help," said Carmen, taking the mop from me and mopping a bit of the floor. Then she stopped, resting on the mop. "Demon?" she asked. "Do you remember when we were at the hospital and I asked you to say a nice thing about me?"

"Yeah..."

"Well, can you say another nice thing? It's just that I'm not feeling too good."

"Only if you say something nice about me. Super-nice."

"Um... well there's _something_..."

"What?"

"Okay, I'm just gonna say it. Ithinkyou'rereallycuteandI'vekindofgotamassivecrushonyo uandcanyoukissmenowpleasetha nkyoutoyou." And then her words were just blurred, and I could hear the blood pounding in my head for just a split second, and I knew what I wanted to do, and then before I knew it, me and Carmen were kissing.

* * *

**Skye's Diary**

**Tuesday June 18 2013**

Demon had to pay the money back, and he got punished, him and Carmen are now going out (so cute!), and Elektra's still badgering me about Toby and Brandon. This is a normal Tuesday at Elm Tree House.

* * *

"I get it!" said Elektra triumphantly in the corridor again at the end of Tuesday. "You hate both of them! Toby _and _Brandon! That's why you wouldn't choose!"

"No, I like both of them," retorted Skye. "It's called _having friends_. Would you know about that? You'd know about having _girl_friends, you're a total lesbian."

"Take that back," fumed Elektra.

"No," said Skye.

"Skye's got a mouth on her, hasn't she?" said Elektra. "On her ugly little face." Elektra punched Skye in the mouth. Skye fell backwards. "Ouch," she said. "Brandon, just by a little bit," she said.

"What?" asked Elektra.

"I like Brandon more."

"That's all I was asking for," said Elektra, walking away.

* * *

**Don't worry, Elektra's definitely going to get punished! And hey, Demon and Carmen are going out! Yay! We can call them Darmen! Or Cemon! No, it doesn't have the same ring to it. Darmen it is. On a slightly unrelated note, I loved _Esme _and _Scary Beasts_, and I'm obviously happy there's a second series next year.**

* * *

**Next time in _The Dumping Ground Diaries_**

Saskia's trying desperately hard to be nice to people, because they're just forgetting about her. But every time she tries to be nice, she ends up doing something bad. She needs to right her wrongs. But how?

**Episode 10 is called "Mistakes, by Saskia".**

**As you may have guessed from the title, it's about Saskia.**


	10. Series 1 Episode 10: Mistakes, by Saskia

**Saskia's Diary**

**June 20 2013**

_I don't get it. Nobody's really friendly with me, nobody likes me apart from Carmen. So I'm just trying to help in any way I can, but they don't appreciate it. Urgh, I hate them! Can't they see I'm just trying to help? But every single thing I do, it seems that it goes wrong. And everyone's still going mad about room-sharing and stuff, because of the flood. I'm just so, so angry... I hate everyone!_

* * *

The plant pot smashed onto the cold tarmac, and the plant that was inside it fell to the floor, its leaves being crushed and folded in on each other as it hit the floor. Gina screamed.

"What on earth do you think you're doing, man?" she asked.

"I'm- I'm so sorry," said Saskia quietly. "I was just trying to help."

"By knocking me plant over?" roared Gina.

"I was trying to help you. By watering it. You've been preoccupied with the baby. I thought I could water a few flowers, help out. I just knocked it over by accident," replied Saskia.

"By accident? _By accident?_" asked Gina in disbelief. She was visiting for the day. She took a minute to calm down, compose herself. "No, it's okay babes, I know you were just trying to help. Go inside now, just go inside. I'll clean this up, you just go away."

"_Go away? _Are you even allowed to say that to somebody you're supposed to care for? As your job?" asked Saskia.

"Babes, I don't work here any more. And I'm flipping annoyed now! Just go inside, yeah," retorted Gina.

"Fine, I don't care, you STUPID HAG!" yelled Saskia, running inside and slamming the door behind her.

* * *

**Mike, Tracy, Mark, Elektra, Toby, Brandon, Skye, Joel, Tyler, Carmen (love dat girl), me (Demon), Johnny, Saskia (now an idiot), Gabriella and Faith in...**

**THE DUMPING GROUND DIARIES**

**Episode 10: Mistakes, by Saskia**

* * *

"So what's up with Saskia, then?" asked Elektra, smiling and idling playing with her hair. Quite a few of the kids were in the living room – Elektra, Tyler, Faith, Skye, Joel, Toby and Brandon. "Something's got in her system. Suddenly the nice girl's turned into a stroppy bitch."

"Elektra! Language! Nine-year-old in the room!" protested Skye, who definitely _hadn't _forgotten how Elektra had punched her in the face a few days ago.

"Oh, I'm _so sorry_," said Elektra sarcastically. "Idiot," she murmured.

"Back to Saskia," said Joel. "She has been pretty grumpy, hasn't she? Badmouthing Gina's cooking, saying mean things."

"She smashed a flowerpot," said Brandon.

"Mean..." said Toby.

"Thank you for adding that Toby," said Tyler.

"So what's wrong with her then?" asked Faith.

"Maybe it's just something to do with growing up?" asked Tyler. "I don't know."  
"I suppose we haven't really been paying attention to her lately, or listening to her, or anything," said Skye. "Maybe she just feels left out. Maybe we need to be nicer to her."

"Yeah, but to be nice to her, we have to go _near _her," said Toby. "She's being mean."

"She might hit us," said Brandon.

"Yeah, but if we're nice to her, at least it might stop," said Skye.

"Okay, so we try to be nicer," said Faith. "Let's just hope it works."

* * *

"Hey, do you want a drink?" asked Saskia to Faith in the kitchen. Faith was sitting on one of the bar stools.

"Yeah, cup of tea, please," responded Faith.

"Milk, no sugar?"

"You know it." Saskia put some water in the kettle and left it to boil. "What's been up with you, lately?" asked Faith. "One minute you're smashing flowerpots, the next you're being all nice and making people drinks."

"I'm just trying to be nice."

"Saskia, I know, I just don't understand _why_. Skye says it might be because we've been ignoring you a bit lately. Is that it?"

"Yeah, kind of," admitted Saskia.

"Well, I suppose it's just been a bit stressful with the flood and everything. Anyway, we can pay attention to you more if you want."

"Okay. Your mug?"

"Yeah." Saskia opened a cupboard and got out Faith's mug, with Faith written on it. She made the cup of tea and walked across the kitchen to give it to Faith when...

"Ah!" Saskia tripped over her own feet momentarily, and the cup of tea fell to the floor, smashing Faith's mug and drenching the floor in milky tea. "I- I'm so sorry," whimpered Saskia, but Faith just gave her a mean look.

"Save it," she said forcefully. Saskia ran out of the kitchen.

* * *

"Hey, Toby, want me find the charger for your DS?" asked Saskia merrily an hour or two later. She was in Toby's bedroom, feeling a bit better after the smashing-Faith's-mug incident, and now trying to help other people. Toby nodded. "Right, give me the DS and I'll find the charger." Toby passed it to Saskia and Saskia ran out of the room.

Toby heard a thump and then Saskia ran back into the room. "I'm so, so sorry," she said. "It just fell out of my hands! I'm sorry!" Toby's DS had smashed on the floor. Toby tried to turn it on. The screen remained black. Pure black. The DS wasn't going to work.

Angrily, Toby thumped Saskia on the arm. Saskia ran out of the room. She'd messed up, again.

* * *

Saskia walked into the laundry room, facing Gabriella, who was piling clothes into the washing machine, looking fed up.

"Oh no, Gabriella, it's fine, I'll sort that out for you!" she offered happily.

"Oh, really? Oh, thanks, Saskia," said Gabriella. "Remember, lights and darks separately. Okay, thank you!" And with that, she was gone.

* * *

"I'm never asking you to anything EVER AGAIN!" screamed Gabriella.

Saskia trailed after her as the older girl furiously stormed down the stairs. "No, I didn't mean it, it was an accident."

"You just _had _to imitate every TV series and film ever, and turn all my clothes pink! Pink's okay, but I don't like it so much that I want all my clothes pink! Idiot!"

Gabriella stormed off. Saskia sat on a stair and started to sob.

* * *

**Gabriella's Diary**

**June 20 2013**

She's gone too far this time. I hate Saskia Jones, her stupid face, her stupid hair. I hate her.

* * *

"Right, you lot, I've got you together because I really, _really _need to apologise for what I've done. It's been wrong and irresponsible, and accidental, yes, but I should have been more careful. I'm so, so sorry and I hope you'll forgive me. I've been stroppy and grumpy for no reason, and I realise now that's probably annoyed you, but I've been feeling left out, and that's probably me being spoiled, really. Gabriella, I promise to spend my clothing allowance on new clothes for you to replace the ones I ruined, next time I get the allowance, and Toby, I fixed your DS! It took a bit of help from Mark, but hey, it's fixed! Faith, I'll buy you a new mug. And make you a better cup of tea. Gina, I'll get a new plant, new flowerpot, from my own money. I'm so, so sorry, but please, _please _forgive me."

"We forgive you!" everybody laughed. And Saskia couldn't help smiling.

* * *

**Sorry for not updating in a while. Busy with... stuff. Also I've been planning more episodes of this story, about half of Series 2 in fact, and there's some very good stuff coming up...**

* * *

**Next time on _The Dumping Ground Diaries_...**

The Dumping Ground kids are getting interviewed for the local paper, but they find it increasingly hard to be truthful, and soon they begin to take things _way _too far...

**Episode 11 is called "Famous". It's partly based on an episode of _Friends _called "The One With Joey's Interview" and it's got quite a few flashbacks and bits of old chapters.**


	11. Series 1 Episode 11: Famous

"Come on you guys!" said Mark, shooing all of us kids towards the door and out of Elm Tree House. "We've got to be at the café for about half ten, and that's when the reporter will arrive. Be nice to her. We'll get you stuff to eat and drink, but you need to hurry up!" So we were shooed into the minibus. Within a minute we had set off to go into town to find a café where we could be interviewed.

"Um... _why _are we being interviewed?" asked Toby.

"The local paper decided they want to do a story about us," said Tyler.

"Yeah, that's what I heard," said Carmen. "It's gonna be fun!"

"Yeah, but why didn't Tracy interview us?" asked Faith. "I mean, she works at the same newspaper."

"Oh my gosh, yes I do!" cried Tracy. "Hey, that's a good point," she said, her face etched with mild confusion. "Why didn't they ask me? They know I work here."

"Maybe you're in their bad books, Tracy," teased Mike.

"Maybe they've decided you're rubbish," sneered Joel, in just a slightly friendly tone.

"Oh, shut up!" protested Tracy. "They probably decided they didn't want a... biased reporter, or something."

"You keep telling yourself that," I told her.

"Anyway, I don't really mind. You lot are going to be famous!" said Tracy.

"Yeah, but only to ten or twenty people who get the local paper," said Carmen.

"Actually, it's way more people than that! And still... you lot are going to be famous!" Tracy whooped. "Yay!"

* * *

**Mike, Tracy, Mark, Elektra, Toby, Brandon, Skye, Joel, Tyler, Carmen, me (Demon), Johnny, Saskia, Gabriella and Faith in...**

**THE DUMPING GROUND DIARIES**

**Episode 11: Famous**

* * *

"Hello there, I'm Louisa Roberts from the local paper, and as you probably know I just want to ask a question each, in small groups. It's going to be a two-part article in the paper for two consecutive Sundays. So if you don't mind, I'll take... you, young lady, I'll take you first." Louisa Roberts wore a smart-looking black suit and a black skirt. She had black hair styled into a neat bun. She had a laptop tucked under her arm. Us kids were sitting around drinking milkshakes, but we all turned to Carmen when Louisa said her name.

"Okay, looks like it's me then," said Carmen, standing up and walking to Louisa.

"And also _you_," decided Louisa, pointing to Joel, "and _you,_" pointing to Saskia, who both stood up and walked over to Louisa. Louisa took the three children to a separate table and opened up the laptop. She began to ask the questions.

"So... what are your names?" she asked.

"I'm Carmen Howle," said Carmen.

"And I'm Joel Sherwood," announced Joel a bit pompously.

"And my name's Saskia. That's S-A-S-K-I-A."

"Saskia...?" asked Louisa.

"Jones."

"Brilliant. Okay, so the first question: I can see that quite a lot of children live in the care home. When you're living with so many people in one place, can it get quite stressful? Are they arguments and disagreements?"

Carmen thought quite hard...

* * *

_Demon flung the lounge door open. Rick was on the sofa listening to his iPod. Demon yanked the headphones out of Rick's ears and chucked the iPod on the pool table, where it landed with a loud CRACK. Demon started strangling Rick, who punched him in the stomach. Demon let go, and Rick kicked him. Demon punched him right in the face, but Rick grabbed his feet, so he couldn't move. Demon punched him in the stomach and Rick let go, blood trickling down his face from where Demon had punched him before. He had a really bad nosebleed. Did Demon care? He kicked Rick where-it-hurts and Rick punched Demon in the stomach, winding him. Summoning all his strength, Demon punched Rick in the stomach one last time, sending him flying into the sofa. His nose bleeding madly, he walked out of the lounge, leaving blood on the carpet._

* * *

_Demon butted Mike's head back into his stomach and Mike let go of him, wincing in pain. Demon took this opportunity to escape, picking up a chair from the corner of the room. He knew what to do next. He __threw the chair with all his might, and it flew into Johnny's face, knocking him unconscious, right into the sofa. The other kids were speechless and white with shock as Tracy grabbed Demon, pulling him out of the room._

* * *

_The windows simultaneously broke, bits of glass flying everywhere. The glass shattered into many pieces, which were hurled all around the lounge. There were chinks to be heard, as the glass shattered into pieces. Suddenly, a silhouetted figure climbed through the holes where the window once was. There were jagged pieces of glass in the holes. The figure landed with a thud on the lounge carpet._

* * *

_Demon screamed in sheer terror as he careered backwards, falling down the stairs. He banged off a wall, arriving in a heap at the bottom. He saw Mal smirking, and then... everything went black._

* * *

"Yeah, generally, it's very quite in the Du- in Elm Tree House," said Carmen. "Nothing much happens. I mean, sometimes obviously things get a tiny bit heated, but it's mostly okay."  
"Yeah, um, nothing really happens, it's nice and quiet and normal," decided Saskia.  
"No fights or anything, completely fine and... yeah, completely fine," said Joel, gulping, hoping his story sounded realistic enough.

* * *

"So, it's Gabriella, Faith and Elektra? Good, right, here's your question," said Louisa Roberts. "In a place like Elm Tree House, is it easy to have privacy? To keep secrets?"  
Elektra started thinking.

* * *

_Demon had snuck into the office and stole Johnny's file, ready to find and dish out some juicy secrets. Johnny himself was out somewhere. Everything was coming together for him to auction off all of Johnny'spersonal secrets._

_ "Right, roll up! Come and get all of Johnny Taylor's personal, embarrassing secrets! For a small fee, of course," Demon said theatrically._

_ "What? I don't want to have to pay," said Saskia._

_ "Yeah, and you really shouldn't be doing this," said Faith._

_ "What? You don't agree with this? Well, maybe I should just go and steal your file and auction off your secrets," retorted Demon._

* * *

"Everything's, yeah, totally under wraps," said Elektra.

"Private," agreed Gabriella.

"Secret," said Faith.

* * *

"Right, so it's Skye, Toby and... Demon. You're the kid who got run over by a car and burnt in a massive fire at another care home, right?" asked Louisa Roberts.

"I've got absolutely no idea what you're talking about," I replied calmly.

"Right, you three. Get your heads together. Your question is this: in a place full of children, such as Elm Tree House, is it possible for love to blossom? Is there a fair bit of romance in Elm Tree House?"

Demon started thinking.

* * *

_"You like me. I like you too," Lily said, leaning in to me. I knew what would happen next. She started kissing me passionately and I found myself kissing her back. After nearly fourteen months, this was actually happening. The kiss lasted for what seemed like ages, but was probably only a few seconds. If Gus was here, which would be creepy, I could imagine him with a stopwatch, counting exactly how long it lasted._

_"Okay..." I said nervously. "That was good"._

_"Yeah it was," agreed Lily. "We should do it more often"._

_"We really should," I agreed, laughing._

_We kissed once more, quickly, and walked downstairs, hand in hand._

* * *

_All of a sudden, Viva leaned over to me and kissed me on the lips with so much passion it was unbelievable. The minute her lips touched mine it felt a bit like heaven, and the kiss seemed to last for a lifetime: we didn't break apart for what seemed like ages. When we eventually did, I was speechless._

* * *

_Viva leaned over to me and kissed me quickly on the lips, and it felt like heaven again but this time I knew that it was completely wrong and I was practically betraying Lily._

* * *

_A boy of about Elektra's age walked through the door. He had spiky black hair and a black leather jacket, and he walked up to Elektra and hugged her._

_ "Ooh, has Elektra got a boyfriend?" I teased. Elektra maybe took this the wrong way, and decided to tear my guts out._

* * *

_And then she leaned over to me and started kissing me passionately on the lips. The kiss seemed to last forever and ever, and it felt like heaven. I couldn't believe what was happening. I decided I had nothing better to do, so I decided to keep on kissing Stephanie. After a while, we finally broke apart._

* * *

_Dear Diary,_

_Sapphire came round today, which made me happy. Obviously. I mean, what's wrong with fancying Sapphire? There's nothing wrong with it. She's really pretty. She's beautiful in fact._

_From Rick_

* * *

_"Look up," Viva said. Oh god. This couldn't be good. I looked up. Mistletoe._

_ "Mistletoe," I said._

_ "Christmas means mistletoe. And we both know what mistletoe means". She leaned over to me and kissed me on the lips. It seemed to last forever, and it felt nice. Very nice. When she finished, she turned to me._

_ "Be my boyfriend?" she asked. Now I had to think. I totally fancied Stephanie, but I sort of fancied Viva as well. I mean, she was pretty and I'd known her for ages, but did I just want to be friends... no, I'd decided. It had taken about two seconds._

_ "Yeah," I grinned._

* * *

"_Okay," said Carmen. "I'm just gonna say it. Ithinkyou'rereallycuteandI'vekindofgotamassivecrus honyouandcanyoukissmenowpleasethankyoutoyou." And then her words were just blurred, and I could hear the blood pounding in my head for just a split second, and I knew what I wanted to do, and then before I knew it, me and Carmen were snogging._

* * *

"_You're going out with Carmen!" It was true. Carmen had told me and I hadn't believed it, but then I reconsidered: Carmen was a big blabbermouth, of course it was true! They were perfect for each other, the two freaks, Carmen and Johnny. And they were going out – I would never stop teasing Johnny._

* * *

"_JOHNNY TAYLOR IS DATING CARMEN HOWLE!" I screamed at the top of my voice._

* * *

"No, no romance, nothing," I said quickly and sharply.

"That's not how I remember it..." started Toby. Skye shushed him.

* * *

"Johnny Taylor, Tyler Lewis and Brandon... Gold, am I right?" asked Louisa Roberts. The boys nodded. "Right. Here's your question: what is there in the way of violence at Elm Tree House? Anything or nothing?"

Tyler began to think.

* * *

_Demon grabbed a pool stick and jabbed it right in Elektra's stomach. Elektra screamed and wailed. Demon thrusted it at her again, and it poked her forcefully in the stomach again, and then again. Then Demon punched her in the mouth powerfully. Blood started pouring out of it. Elektra doubled over and fell to the ground as Demon jabbed her in the back. She started crying as she curled up into a ball on the floor, tears streaming down her cheeks. She lay on the floor, whimpering, broken._

* * *

"No violence, and everything's completely fine," said Tyler stiffly. Johnny and Brandon nodded in agreement. Louisa looked a bit sceptical.

* * *

"Well, that's everything I need so, um, bye," said Louisa Roberts. We all left the café, leaving Louisa Roberts to be very puzzled indeed.

* * *

**I liked writing this episode because I didn't have to write a lot! A fair bit of it is flashbacks! This episode contains flashbacks from: A Demon at Elm Tree House Chapters 22, 13, 11 and 28, The Demon Traylen Files Chapters 1, 2, 4, 5, 10, 12, 15, 17 and 19, and The Dumping Ground Diaries Episode 9. It's the second longest episode in terms of length and words and stuff, but in terms of what I actually had to write, it's the shortest, or one of the shortest.**

* * *

**Next time on _The Dumping Ground Diaries_...**

When Gabriella receives some shocking news, it looks like the careworkers are going to have to fight her mean parents for custody of her. Tension builds and Gabriella is full of indecision about what to do... so what will happen to her? Meanwhile, Elektra's starting to develop romantic feelings she's never had before... about Faith.

**Episode 12 is called "Gabriella". As you might just about be able to tell, it's about Gabriella. **


	12. Series 1 Episode 12: Gabriella

Everybody, all of the kids and careworkers from Elm Tree House, was skating about on the ice rink; some of them mastered it easily, gracefully skating across the ice, but most of them just kept toppling over and landing flat on their face. Well, when I say everybody was skating, everybody except me, and Mark. I couldn't see the point in it – after all, it just looked boring and pointless – so I just sat at the side and didn't join in, laughing at the times when people fell over – apart from Carmen of course. But Gabriella had invited everybody along, and they were laughing and skating and just generally looking happy, even though they all knew that they were very bad at ice-skating. Mark was sitting by the side because he didn't want to join in either. He was on his phone right now.

In truth, Gabriella was the only person on the ice rink that was any good. She enjoyed ice-skating and occasionally had lessons, but they were quite expensive and the council couldn't always afford to pay for them, so she relished the times when she _was _able to have lessons.

All of a sudden, Mark called out, "Mike, Gabriella, can you come over here for a minute please?" The careworker and the teenager skated up to Mark where Mark started talking to them. I was sitting quite a way away from Mark, so I couldn't really here what they were saying. I could here odd bits of sentences like 'parents' and 'custody', but I didn't really know what they meant. Maybe something to do with Gabriella's real parents? Or foster parents?

Suddenly, Gabriella screamed, her voice echoing and reverberating off the walls. "NO!"

* * *

**Mike (MBE, just so you know), Tracy, Mark, Elektra, Toby, Brandon, Skye, Joel (who still gets on my nerves, but not as much as he used to), Tyler, Carmen, me (Demon), Johnny, Saskia, Gabriella (who's in quite a lot of trouble right now) and Faith in...**

**THE DUMPING GROUND DIARIES**

**Episode 12: Gabriella**

* * *

"So she was there, Mark was on the phone, he told Gabriella and Mike something, Gabriella started screaming, and then she didn't talk to anyone on the minibus and when we got back, she barricaded herself in her room and didn't even come down for lunch. That's all we've got to go on, right?" asked Skye. Everybody nodded. "Demon? You were sitting at the side, what did you hear?"

"Well, I didn't make out much of the conversation, but I heard 'parents' and 'custody'. I thought maybe it was something to do with foster parents wanting to take custody of her, or maybe her real parents," I reasoned.

"Yeah, but nobody knows where Gabriella came from," said Saskia. "What her parents were like, how she came to be in care. All we know is her mum died a while ago. Demon, are you sure you haven't nicked her file from the office and read it?"

"Don't you think I'd tell you if I did?" I said.

"Probably not," said Johnny.

"Didn't ask for your opinion," I responded. "No, I've not got a clue. But instead of just trying to work it out for ourselves, why not just ask the careworkers?"

"Oh yeah," realised Faith.

"Dumbo," I said.

"Shut up," snapped Faith. "Mark likes us, he'd tell us if we asked nicely."

"I don't know," said Carmen. "You know the careworkers aren't supposed to give away information about how people came to be in care, unless the actual person says it's fine."

"Yeah, but Mark still likes us. Oh, come on, let's just ask. What's the worst that can happen?" asked Faith.

* * *

"Faith, hi!" said Mark. Faith strolled into the office calmly, forcing a big smile onto her face. "What can I do for you?" he asked.

"Well, I'd like to know why Gabriella was being angry earlier today? It's just that we're best friends and if there's something on her mind, I might be able to help."

"Okay then Faith, I'll tell you, but don't go blurting it out, okay. Right, well Gabriella's parents divorced when Gabriella was six. Her dad went to live in America, and eventually he got put in prison for robbery. Gabriella's mum took care of Gabriella, but she began to do inappropriate jobs, little robberies and a bit of drug dealing, stuff like that. She left Gabriella on her own for a long time without babysitters or anything – she didn't trust anybody. Once, she left Gabriella on her own for two weeks whilst she was in Cornwall helping to rob a bank. So Gabriella phoned 999 one day when she was ten. She thought that was the right number to call. 999 forwarded her to Childline, who sorted out a placement at a care home. She's been in care since then."

"Wow," breathed Faith. "That's pretty bad." She was genuinely shocked for Gabriella. "But it still doesn't explain why Gabriella was being all angry and shouty."

"Well, Gabriella's dad has got married again, and they've tracked down Gabriella. They're trying to gain custody of her. Gabriella really doesn't want to go with them because she's afraid of them, so it looks like we're going to have to fight Gabriella's dad and stepmum for custody of Gabriella."

Faith was again shocked. "Thanks Mark," she mumbled, and left the room.

* * *

Faith had told the other kids about what had happened to Gabriella. They'd all been amazed, and decided that they needed to do something to help Gabriella.

"Well, are the careworkers going to go to court or something?" asked Toby.

"Probably," agreed Faith. "Maybe a small, local court or something, but still a court. That's what happens in these situations. But surely the careworkers have got to win. I mean, Gabriella admitted that she doesn't want to live with her parents. They've got to listen to her. And she might be a horrible stepmum!"

"Yeah," agreed Elektra, "but Gabriella's not even been here for a year! Court might think that because her parents lived with her for longer, then Gabriella should go and live with them." Elektra kept staring into Faith's eyes. She loved it when Faith took charge. In truth, she wished she could share a room with Faith. Every time she was around her, she felt a tingly feeling everywhere, a feeling she hadn't really felt before. Was it love? Surely it wasn't. Elektra Perkins in love? She thought back to what Skye had said two weeks ago: "_it's called having friends. Would you know about that? You'd know about having girlfriends, you're a total lesbian." _Was that true? Was she a lesbian? Suddenly she realised something massive – yes she was. Elektra Perkins fancied Faith Davis.

* * *

**Gabriella's Diary**

**Saturday June 29 2013**

I'm writing in the diary because I don't want to talk to anybody else. I don't understand. I don't know what to do. They want to take me back, my parents. And I know that I'm frightened of them, but at the end of the day, they _are _my parents - well, one of them is - and I suppose I should be living with them. But on the other hand, Elm Tree House is full of people who care about me. Am I too old to be living here? Maybe I should go to a 'halfway house' or something, somewhere to go before I'm old enough to find a place of my own. I don't know what to do. And after all, court is looming... Mike got a letter today. It turns out that my parents made an appeal for a hearing months ago, and it's the week after next. I don't know what to do.

* * *

Faith was lying on her bed in her room. Elektra knocked on the door. "Come in," called Faith. Elektra walked into the room.

"Umm... Faith?" she said. Faith nodded. "I know this is going to sound really awkward, but, um, well, do you, er, do you have a boyfriend?"

Faith shook her head. "Not for a while."

"And, um, now this question is going to seem really, _really _weird, but, uh, would you ever consider going out with a girl?"

Faith looked slightly shocked. "Well, yeah, I suppose so," she answered after some time. "If they were nice and sweet. I mean, it doesn't matter what sex they are, as long as it's somebody who you love and respect."

"Right, that's all," said Elektra, turning slightly red with embarrassment. She was vaguely aware of the sweat on her forehead. She turned to leave.

"Wait!" said Faith. Elektra turned round to face Faith. "Are you sure there's not another question on the end of that?" she asked.

"Well, um, maybe," admitted Elektra. She breathed. "Right, I'm just going to say it. Do you... _fancy _me?" Faith paused for a minute, a long, long, minute that in Elektra's head seemed to be a lifetime. Then she nodded. "What, really?" asked Elektra. Faith nodded again.

"It's questions, questions, questions," said Faith. "What about you? Got something else to say?"

"Well, uh, I, um, I fancy you," said Elektra.

Faith nodded. "Thought so. Right, well I fancy you, you fancy me, I think we know what's going to happen next."

* * *

"Gabriella is perfectly happy living at Elm Tree House. She's safe, she has friends, people who care for her, people her own age. She's cared for, happy," said Tracy. "Whereas when she was living with her mum, she got left on her own for days on end with nothing to do. She wasn't ever let out of the house, she didn't have freedom or responsibility. She was unhappy. She even admitted to us that she doesn't want to be in the custody of her parents, and she'd rather be with us."

"Lies! You've poisoned her against us!" hissed Gabriella's father.

"Stop your babbling!" cried the judge, a lady wearing a curly white wig that looked like it was attempting to run away from her head. "The case for the defence and prosecution has been presented. The court will debate, and soon the verdict will be made. If you would like to remain silent please."

The minutes seemed to tick by. Tracy, Mark, Mike and their lawyer were sitting on one side of the courtroom, Gabriella's parents and _their _lawyer were sitting on the other side, and Gabriella was sitting, mortified and shell-shocked, in the middle.

After what seemed like hours, the judge turned to the front. "A verdict has been reached," she announced. "After assessing and analysing the facts, it has been finally decided that Gabriella Sophie Nelson will remain in the custody of Mike Milligan and Elm Tree House Care Home." Gabriella looked relieved.

* * *

"Mike, I want to go to a halfway house," Gabriella said bluntly to Mike that evening. "I love it here, but I'm too old. Tracy said in court that I had no freedom when I was with my parents. I've got freedom here, but I want more. I know I'm not old enough to live on my own, but a halfway house would help. Come on, please."

"Well, I don't know if you're old enough, but I'll see what I can do," said Mike.

"Thanks," said Gabriella, smiling and walking out of the office.

* * *

Gabriella was crying ever so slightly as she climbed into the car two days later. Everybody had gathered outside the house and they waved her goodbye. Gabriella waved back and the car sped off to the halfway house, ready for Gabriella to start again.

* * *

**Blub! Bye-bye Gabriella! Oh, this is too sad! No more Gabriella! No, in all seriousness, it's not the end, because Gabriella will be coming back for some episodes of Series 2, which I'm planning out now. Thanks to Gabriella's creator strawberrymagic01 for giving all the background information about Gabriella and how she came to be in care etc. It helped a lot! Also, by accident, when I was writing this chapter, I accidentally misspelled Gabriella's name (only once) as Gabrielala. Just thought you needed to know that. So... Gabriella's gone and Elektra's a lesbian! What a weird day we're having today. And yes, Elektra _is _now going out with Faith. And also... hey! Two big long 2000+ word chapters in one morning. Yay!**

**EDIT 27/4/13: Realised that I might a massive mistake in that Gabriella's mum appears in this chapter, when she died in Episode 4. Good one me! Anyway, edited it so it's now Gabriella's stepmum. Sorted. Phew. Back to finishing off 2.1**

* * *

**Next time on _The Dumping Ground Diaries_...**

When Mike happens upon a family who are willing to foster three children, the careworkers all debate about who will be going. But as the three children are chosen to be fostered, there's misunderstanding, arguments and revelations...

**Episode 13, the finale, is called "Don't Forget Us". And it's true... three characters are leaving. Unfortunately, they're three of my favourites!**


	13. Series 1 Episode 13: Don't Forget Us

"Well, we'd certainly be interested," said Steven Cross, a man with sandy hair and a kind, earnest face, coupled with a green shirt. He looked to be about thirty at the most. He was sitting in the quiet room next to his wife Hayley, who looked about the same age, with long black hair. Facing them, sitting on the opposite sofa, were Mike and Tracy. The Crosses wanted to foster a child. Or so Mike and Tracy thought.

"So you'd definitely, _definitely _want to foster one of them?" queried Tracy.

"One? Oh no, not one. Three! Three's what we're after!" cried Hayley jubilantly.

Mike and Tracy looked at each other in shock. "Three?" asked Tracy. "You'd want three of _them_?" she asked, referring to the kids of Elm Tree House. "Well, if that's what you want."

"Well, we always said we'd like three children, but Hayley can't have children, so fostering seemed like the easy way forward, the best way, the right way. We'd love to take three, any three, provided they're not too naughty," said Steven, smiling.

"Right, well if you're completely sure, let's go to the office and put it in writing!" said Mike. He turned to Tracy. "Three?" he mouthed.

"I'm more worried about favouritism now," said Tracy.

"What do you mean?" asked Mike as he led the Crosses out of the quiet room.

"Well, which three do we pick?" asked Tracy.

* * *

**Mike, Tracy, Mark, Elektra, Toby, Brandon, Skye, Joel, Tyler, Carmen, me (Demon), Johnny, Saskia and Faith (going out with Elektra, aww that's so cute in a slightly weird and unexpected way) in...**

**THE DUMPING GROUND DIARIES**

**Episode 13: Don't Forget Us**

* * *

"Right, so this is a dilemma then," said Mark. "So much of a dilemma that we've had to invite Gina round to help us decide."

"Nice to see you too," said Gina sarcastically. "So they want three kids and they don't care which ones, and we need to choose?"

"Exactly," confirmed Tracy. "And, to be honest, we're clueless."

"No we're not," said Mike dramatically. "I've got one idea, easily."

"Who?" asked Gina.

"Demon," replied Mike.

Tracy gasped. "_Demon?_"

"He missed out on his chance to get fostered back in May. Remember? When the foster family thought they wanted him, but they actually wanted Viva. He's been here for two and a half years, he deserves to go now, have a foster family for the first time in years. He's been through a lot, he deserves to go."

"Well, I'm not going to miss him," said Gina. The other careworkers looked shocked. "Joking!" said Gina, cracking up with laughter. "Mike, _your face_!" She began her weird cackling again.

"But what about Carmen? Would Demon go without Carmen?" asked Tracy.

"Perfect! Carmen goes too," said Mark. "That's two kids down, one to go."

"I might have an idea..." said Tracy.

"Who?" asked Mike.

"Skye," said Tracy. "I mean, she deserves it, she's always well behaved, she deserves a chance to have a foster family. Plus she likes Demon and Carmen, so she's happy. She can come and visit Toby and Brandon any time she likes – the Crosses only live thirty-five minutes away."

"Do we have our three kids?" asked Mike.

"Yeah," said Gina.

* * *

Mike came up to all of the kids at breakfast the next day and cleared his throat loudly. The children looked up to him. "Well, as you all seem to know without anybody telling you, a couple came round yesterday to ask about fostering. And it seems that they're perfectly willing to take three kids. Not one, not two, but three. And they're willing to take them on Wednesday."

"Wednesday?" asked Saskia. "That's tomorrow."

"It's taken us careful deliberation," continued Mike, "but we've chosen the three children that we think deserve to be fostered the most. There's no favouritism involved, I promise you. It's just the children we feel deserve to be fostered. The couple are called Hayley and Steven Cross. They live just over half an hour away."

"Yes, get on with it," said Elektra. "Who's getting fostered?" She was sitting next to Faith.

Mike paused dramatically. "The first child is...Skye!" Skye looked amazed and everybody cheered, apart from Joel, who just looked annoyed.

"The second child is...Carmen!" Carmen also looked surprised but she turned to Mike determinedly. "Well, I'm only going if Demon can come too."

"And the third child is...Demon!" Well, I just couldn't believe it. Me, fostered? Who would want to foster me? Well, I was just glad I wasn't being separated from Carmen. And I've always wanted to be fostered, since I punched my old foster dad right in the face. I felt honoured.

"Thanks," I said, smiling.

* * *

Later that morning, I was packing my things into a suitcase when I decided to go outside. It was warm and sunny and most of all I wanted to throw a water bomb through the office window, straight at Mark. Well, a kid's gotta have fun.

I got the water bomb and crouched down outside the office window. I heard Mike talking, and peered up so I could see inside the office. He was talking to Gina.

"I mean, three gone! We thought we'd only get rid of one! But hey – I'll be glad to see Demon go, especially." He carried on talking but I wasn't listening. His words became blurred. He didn't care about me. He just admitted it – _I'll be glad to see Demon go, especially_. I needed to take drastic action. I just didn't know how.

* * *

Everybody was sitting down for lunch. Mike had just entered the kitchen. I came in straight after him, grabbed him by the shoulders, turned him around so that he was facing me, and punched him right in the mouth. He fell to the ground, clutching his bleeding mouth.

"Oh what, are you going to punish me? Sanction me?" I roared. "Oh wait, you can't, because I'm leaving tomorrow AND YOU DON'T SEEM TO CARE!" And with that, I stormed out of the kitchen.

* * *

I'd stayed in my room for the rest of the day, having packed all of my things. That night, at about 9pm, there came a knock on my bedroom door. I was sitting in bed for the last time at Elm Tree House.

"Who is it?" I asked.

"Mike," said Mike.

"Go away," I replied. The door opened, and Mike came in. "No, sorry, I said 'go away'."

"You punched me in the mouth, Demon," said Mike.

"I know, I was there."

"You shouldn't have done that. I don't know why. Were you venting out your anger on me or something? Just please, Demon, tell me why you did it."

"You don't care about me," I said. "I heard you earlier today in the office. You said you'd be glad to see me go."

Mike looked like he was trying to remember something, and then his expression turned to one of recognition. "Oh, no, you've misunderstood. I didn't mean it like that."

"So how did you mean it."

"I said, 'I'll be glad to see Demon go. It'll be nice for him to have a happy life for once'. You mustn't have heard the last part."

I realised. "Sorry," I said.

"It's okay. I understand. Last night here, hey?"

"Yeah. Everyone here's just assuming I'd do anything to get out of here, because _they _would do anything to get out of here. But... I don't know about me. I like this place. There's people here who care about me. Can I trust you with a big secret?"

Mike nodded. "Of course."

"At Icehill, during those nine months when I was there, I felt really depressed, sad, lonely – there were barely any kids there and they were all way too different to me so... I started cutting myself. Every night, violently too, just using scissors to cut myself. About six months I was cutting myself, destroying myself and nobody knew."

I rolled up the sleeve of my shirt, to show Mike the scars on my arms, deep scars.

"Nasty," winced Mike.

"Don't take me to a mental hospital or anything, I've stopped now. But when I came back there, that first night back, I stopped. I didn't feel like cutting. I haven't done it since. Because of this place. It made me happy. Mike, I seriously _love _this place."

"But change is important," said Mike.

"I guess," I admitted. "Bye," I said.

"Bye," said Mike.

"Please don't start on the 'Goodnight, for the last time, Demon Traylen' stuff."

"Okay. See you in the morning."

"Night," I said, and Mike left the room.

* * *

Skye enveloped Toby and Brandon in a big bear hug, and then climbed into the car, which was slightly weighed down with suitcases. Hayley and Steven Cross sat in the front of the car, smiling. Carmen hugged Saskia and climbed into the car, and then I turned to Mike.

"Well... bye," I said.

"Goodbye, Demon Traylen," said Mike, on the verge of tears. I walked over to the door of the car.

"DON'T FORGET US!" I called as I climbed into the car, which then speeded away, past the kids and careworkers of Elm Tree House. Carmen and Skye waved. I didn't feel like it. The car sped through the gates of Elm Tree House, ready for me and Carmen and Skye to begin a brand new life.

* * *

**Yep, it's true, after sixteen months writing about him, Demon's gone! And he's taken Carmen and Skye with him! I'm sure they'll all be happy with the Cross family, and they're definitely all going to be back for a few guest appearances in Series 2. Demon is in Series 2, Episode 1 – well, a little bit of it at least. I don't know, I haven't written it yet. And yes, today I've written 3 chapters – oh yeah! Actually, I've also written something else today, which you can find out about, just below this:**

* * *

Coming soon for _The Dumping Ground Diaries_...

**Series 1: Behind the Scenes  
**Find out all about how the episodes, characters and situations were created and written, with lots of never-before-seen exclusive material about the 13 episodes.  
**The behind the scenes chapter will be uploaded sometime soon. After that I'm going on holiday and there might not be wi-fi, but when I get back from holiday (Thursday next week) there'll be another little behind-the-scenes nugget for you. Stay tuned...**

* * *

**AUTHOR NOTE: **23103 words, 1258 views, 4 favourites, 4 follows, 39 reviews... yeah, I'm happy with that (info correct as of 14:31, 3 April 2013 :D). So after the Behind the Scenes and Coming Soon chapters, Series 2 is definitely, definitely coming...


	14. Information for Series 1 poll

Just so you know, on my profile page there's a poll where you can vote for your favourite episode of _The Dumping Ground Diaries. _I'd appreciate it if you'd vote. Just so I know which episodes were the most popular. It would help me to plan future episodes. Thank you!


	15. Behind the Scenes of Series 1

Welcome, people staring at the computer screen hoping to read something interesting, to a behind-the-scenes look at the creation and writing and production of Series 1 of _The Dumping Ground Diaries_. Here we go!

* * *

**BizarrePineapple15 (yes, that's me!) in...**

**THE DUMPING GROUND DIARIES: BEHIND THE SCENES OF SERIES 1**

**by BizarrePineapple15**

* * *

The series was first plotted out right at the end of December, in the Notebook of Doom (just a notebook actually, but I'm trying to make it sound more dramatic. After all, in the notebook, characters get chucked out of stories and things are plotted). I knew that I wanted to do a story which was in a more episodic format – like _Tracy Beaker Returns _or _The Dumping Ground_ on telly. That meant I woulddo 13 episodes forming one series. Perfect. Originally, I sketched out the first five episodes like this (and yes, the series was always called _The Dumping Ground Diaries_, after not much deliberation)-

* * *

1: Discovery in the DG (by Emma Reeves, dir. Craig Lines)

2: Mischief in the DG (by Elly Brewer, dir. Craig Lines)

3: Surprises in the DG (by Emma Reeves and Elly Brewer, dir. Craig Lines)

4: The Flood (by Steve Turner, dir. Neasa Hardiman)

5: Gothic (by Dave Ingham, dir. Neasa Hardiman)

* * *

Explanation time:

**a) **'Surprises in the DG' was the working title for 'Showdown in the DG'

**b) **'The Flood' was the working title for 'Whodunnit?' which ended up as Episode 8

**c) **'Gothic' never happened. It was just a title with no story, really.

**d) **When I was writing the story I assigned a writer and director to each story, just because I felt like it, and I was bored, and it made me seem 'more in charge of a series' than I really was. It also helped me get a feel of what the episode would be like. The final writer-and-director-table for the series goes like this-

* * *

1: Discovery in the DG (by Elly Brewer, dir. Craig Lines)

2: Mischief in the DG (by Steve Turner, dir. Craig Lines)

3: Showdown in the DG (by Matt Evans, dir. Craig Lines)

4: Explanations (by Emma Reeves, dir. Stewart Svaasand)

5: The Trouble With Care (by Emma Reeves, dir. Stewart Svaasand)

6: Birth, Rebirth (by Diane Whitley, dir. Stewart Svaasand)

7: Stupid Brandon (by Steve Turner, dir. Di Patrick)

8: Whodunnit? (by Dawn Harrison, dir. Di Patrick)

9: Stuck in the Middle (by Elly Brewer, dir. Di Patrick)

10: Mistakes, by Saskia (by Nathan Cockerill, dir. Di Patrick)

11: Famous (by Jonathan Evans, dir. Matt Bloom)

12: Gabriella (by Jonathan Evans, dir. Matt Bloom)

13: Don't Forget Us (by Dawn Harrison, dir. Matt Bloom)

* * *

**a) **I chose the directors because they did great on TDG on telly, and Matt Bloom did 4 O'clock Club very well.

**b) **Diane Whitley is head writer on House of Anubis, which is very good, so I chose her for an episode, Nathan Cockerill is from MI High, and Jonathan Evans wrote for TBR.

* * *

So, I had my series' first five episodes. Alongside the guide for the first five episodes, I wrote a brief description of what I wanted in Episode 3 – a flour bomb fight, indoor fireworks, and the teams that the Dumping Ground was split into for the Prank Day. A few days later, I reconsidered.

* * *

1: Discovery in the DG (by Elly Brewer, dir Craig Lines)

2: Mischief in the DG (by Emma Reeves, dir Craig Lines)

3: Showdown in the DG (by Steven Turner, dir Craig Lines)

4: The Flood (writer unconfirmed, dir Di Patrick)

5: tba (writer unconfirmed, dir Di Patrick)

* * *

'Gothic' was gone, the writers were changed, and I created some characters: I wanted Saskia to come back because I was reading my last story and she was a good, underdeveloped character, and I created Toby and Joel: Toby is based on a neighbour and Joel is based loosely on my friend, who isn't evil like Joel. Also, I wrote 'episode 2 – toby, brandon and skye look for treasure'. I knew Toby would be friends with Brandon and Skye. This treasure idea eventually turned up in Episode 5. The next day I changed my mind _again_:

* * *

1: Discovery in the DG (by Elly Brewer, dir Craig Lines)

2: Mischief in the DG (by Emma Reeves, dir Craig Lines)

3: Showdown in the DG (by Steven Turner, dir Craig Lines)

4: Whodunnit? (by Steven Turner, dir Craig Lines)

5: Explanations (by Dawn Harrison, dir Di Patrick)

6: Gabriella's Story (by Dawn Harrison, dir Patrick)

Episodes 7-11 directed by Stewart Svaasand, no titles or writers. Episode 12 directed by Di Patrick, no title or writer.

13: The Trouble With Care Kids (by Elly Brewer and Emma Reeves, dir Craig Lines)

* * *

Diana Patrick and Stewart Svaasand were in my imaginary director list even though I hadn't seen their episodes yet (episode 1 hadn't even been on telly yet) but I just somehow knew if they were good enough for TDG, they were good enough for TDGD. 'The Flood' turned into 'Whodunnit?' for the first time, and 'Explanations' and 'Gabriella's Story' were added, the latter later turning into Episode 12, as 'Gabriella'. It was always my intention to remove Gabriella from the story in her own episode. Dawn Harrison was, in my imaginary writer list, down to write those two episodes because her TBR stuff is largely about the characters and is emotional (like 'Going Home' from Series 3). Episode 13 turned into Episode 5.

After Episodes 1-2 had aired, I wrote an Episode 3 synopsis with the pranks outlined and I drew a picture of Tracy looking a bit weird with a strange hat on. I called her "Tracy Bonker". I also decided to put Faith into my story, because in my mind she was an interesting character and also, I needed more real characters from TDG on telly, in my story, otherwise Elm Tree House would be overrun with OCs.

After Episode 3 had aired I decided Elektra would be back in 'The Trouble With Care Kids' and that Viva would leave in the same episode. It was still Episode 13 at this time. I wrote a synopsis for it too, and the scene where the figure who meets Demon, reveals herself to be Elektra.

After Episode 4 had aired I had a plan. There'd be two series of TDGD (26 episodes total) and then a new series called "Demon Traylen, Fostered" - I wanted Demon to be fostered. The series would have Demon being fostered by the 'Cross' family, including Hayley Cross, Steven Cross and a daughter, Robyn Cross. The DG kids would appear and a lot of it would be set at school. It would be set in September 2013 – Demon would have just turned 14. Then I scrapped those plans. Then I re-thought the series again-

* * *

1: Discovery in the DG (Elly Brewer, Craig Lines)

2: Mischief in the DG (Emma Reeves, Craig Lines)

3: Showdown in the DG (Steven Turner, Craig Lines)

4: Whodunnit? (Steven Turner, Craig Lines)

5: Explanations (Dawn Harrison, Tim Hopewell)

6: Gabriella's Story (Dawn Harrison, Tim Hopewell)

7: The Trouble With Care (Elly Brewer & Emma Reeves, Tim Hopewell)

8: Birth, Rebirth (Dawn Harrison, Di Patrick)

9: tba (Elly Brewer, Di Patrick)

10: tba (Emma Reeves, Di Patrick)

11: tba (Steven Turner, Paul Seed)

12: tba (Diane Whitley, Paul Seed)

13: Don't You Dare Forget Me (Elly Brewer & Emma Reeves, Paul Seed)

* * *

Then I crossed out the title of Episode 13. Paul Seed is a retired actor who was in an episode of Doctor Who, now a director, who directed Just William and Blandings and stuff like that. Tim Hopewell directed House of Anubis. So now "Birth, Rebirth" was invented.

* * *

**A note about the actual writing**: mostly I plan the episodes at length, and then write them in one day and upload them as soon as I've finished.

* * *

**A note about my favourite and least favourite episodes to write: **Ooh, I loved writing "Showdown in the DG" and especially "Whodunnit?" because big things happened and the kids were really pushed to the fore. And my least favourite episodes to write were "Mistakes, by Saskia" and "Explanations" because I think they were probably the weakest episodes. I forgot to pay them attention and then got stuck with no idea what to write.

* * *

A few days later, _again, _my mind was changed (see a pattern anywhere?):

* * *

1: Discovery in the DG (Elly Brewer, Craig Lines, UPLOADED)

2: Mischief in the DG (Dawn Harrison, Craig Lines, UPLOADED)

3: Showdown in the DG (Emma Reeves, Craig Lines, UPLOADED)

4: Explanations (Paul Rose, Craig Lines)

5: The Trouble With Care (Paul Rose, Paul Seed)

6: Birth, Rebirth (Emma Reeves, Paul Seed)

7: Whodunnit? (Neil Jones, Paul Seed)

8: Saskia's Big Mistake (Heather Imani, Paul Seed)

9: tba (Heather Imani, Tim Hopewell)

10: tba (Neil Jones, Tim Hopewell)

11: Gabriella (tba, Stewart Svaasand)

12: tba (Dawn Harrison, Stewart Svaasand)

13: Don't You Dare Forget Me (Elly Brewer, Stewart Svaasand)

* * *

So now the series was beginning to look more like what was eventually uploaded. Episode 8 turned into Episode 10 and Episode 11 turned into Episode 12, but generally the series is really taking shape. Neil Jones is from House of Anubis and Paul Rose is from Dani's Castle.

After I'd written Episode 5, I wrote some synopses for Episodes 6 to 11.

* * *

**Episode 6: Birth, Rebirth**

Lily considers asking Demon out.

She turns to Tee, Carmen and Saskia for advice.

She asks Demon out.

He rejects her and says she's ugly.

Gina has her baby after the DG kids visit.

Lily tells Carmen Demon fancies her.

Carmen asks Demon if it's true.

Demon says she's pretty, but no.

Elektra's being mean to Brandon and Toby for taking her room.

She is locked in the quiet room with them until they get on.

She bashes the door down.

* * *

**Episode 7: Stupid Brandon (invented pretty much on the spot)**

Brandon gets bad test results.

He's told he might have to re-do his year.

Everyone at DG is sympathetic.

Demon decides Brandon's resitting the test.

The kids arrange a retest and an ear device to feed him answers.

Brandon takes the test.

One week later – he gets 95%

Gina and baby visit

* * *

**Episode 8: Whodunnit?**

DG is flooded

Everyone's outside trying to work out who did it

Everyone's got a motive and an alibi

It's safe to go back but Johnny has to share with Joel and Demon

They fight as everyone tries to work out who did it

Turns out it was Mark by accident

* * *

**Episode 9: Saying Nice Things**

Lunchtime, school. Demon has to finish history essay. He does and goes outside to find a small crowd

2 Yr11s have pantsed Johnny and throw him to the floor. Demon says they shoudn't do it. They're about to pants him when he beats them up

He doesn't understand why he's not taken seriously, or the other yr8s

Mike calls a meeting for Tyler, Carmen, Johnny, Lily, and Demon about responsibility and their status

Meanwhile Skye is forced by Elektra to pick between Toby and Brandon

* * *

**Episode 10: Mistakes, by Saskia**

Saskia tries to be nice but ends up breaking a DS, killing Gina's old flowers, shrinking Gabriella's clothes and poisoning food.

Everyone hates her and she's so annoyed.

She has to right her wrongs. Wait – how?

* * *

**Episode 11: Famous**

Some of the kids are interviewed for a local magazine. (very funny, sarcasting and lying, many italics flashbacks – new and from old chapters, like the Joey interview episode of Friends)

After I'd written Episode 7, I wrote the first bit of Episode 9 (the 'pre-credits' bit), albeit with Mr Zee-Zeeh (named after Mr. ZeZe) called Miss Fenton now.

After a bit of time spent thinking up episodes and characters for Series 2 (this happened after Episodes 7 and 8 were uploaded), I finally got back to Series 1, with the idea for the Secrets Auction from Episode 9. It was just a spontaneous idea that seemed like something Demon would do. Then I wrote a bit of Episode 13, and then made another writer-and-director-table. Most of it was the same, with new people including Gary Parker, from Dani's Castle, on writing duties, and Matt Evans, because he'd written TDG Episode 11, Seriously Funny, which I liked.

* * *

**A note about Demon: **He's not in Episodes 4, 7 or 10. That's because he's a central character in Episodes 1, 2, 5, 6, 9 and 13, and he can't be in every episode.

* * *

**A note about the structure of the series: **"Whodunnit?" moved from Episode 4 to Episode 8 because I didn't want to have it coming straight after "Showdown in the DG", because that would be 2 crash-bang-wallop episodes in a row and I wanted to have contrasts between emotional episodes and 'event' episodes.

Episode 1 – quite a quiet episode

Episode 2 – still quiet, but demon is trapped in a wardrobe

Episode 3 – prank day (event episode, ie crash-bang-wallop)

Episode 4 – explanations, quiet (emotional episode)

Episode 5 – trouble with care (emotional and event)

Episode 6 – birth, rebirth (emotional and event)

Episode 7 – stupid brandon (quiet)

Episode 8 – flood (crash-bang-wallop, event episode)

Episode 9 – carmen/demon (mix of emotional and event)

Episode 10 – saskia (emotional, focusing-on-a-certain-character-episode)

Episode 11 – famous (quiet, hints of event)

Episode 12 – gabriella (focusing-on-a-certain-character-episode, _tres _emotional*)

Episode 13 – don't forget us (emotional and event)

* that's me convincing myself I can speak French.

* * *

**A note on working titles**

Ep 1: no working titles

Ep 2: Joel

Ep 3: Surprises in the DG

Ep 4: no working titles

Ep 5: The Trouble With Care Kids, The Trouble With Care Homes

Ep 6: no working titles

Ep 7: no working titles

Ep 8: The Flood

Ep 9: Saying Nice Things

Ep 10: Saskia's Big Mistake

Ep 11: no working titles

Ep 12: Gabriella's Story

Ep 13: Don't You Dare Forget Me, If You Dare Forget Me

* * *

So that's me done. How I made Series 1 of The Dumping Ground Diaries. Now if you don't mind, I'm off to write Series 2!

* * *

Coming soon for _The Dumping Ground Diaries_...

**The Dumping Ground Diaries: Series 2 – Coming soon...**

In this preview chapter for the next series, you can find

i) the title of Episode 1

ii) a synopsis for Episode 1

iii) sneaky hints for Episodes 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7

iv) a brief sneak-preview scene of Episode 1

v) the names of the new characters

vi) character files for the new characters

"**Series 2 – Coming soon..." is... well, coming soon. Actually, it's coming in about two minutes.**


	16. Coming soon - Series Two

**BizarrePineapple15 presents...**

**THE DUMPING GROUND DIARIES**

**COMING SOON... SERIES 2**

**by BizarrePineapple15**

* * *

So... here's a big old preview for the second series of _The Dumping Ground Diaries_, which is expected to begin at the end of this month (April, for those of you keeping track of time). There's five major things to get done in this preview, so I'm going to get on with it now!

* * *

**The title of Episode 1**

Episode 1 is called "Cutting in the DG"

* * *

**A synopsis for Episode 1**

When Mike discovers a pair of blood-stained scissors in the Dumping Ground, it's clear that somebody has been harming themselves. As he recruits Demon to work out who's cutting, it's a race against time as more blood turns up all around the Dumping Ground. Can Demon and Mike get to the bottom of the mystery? And how's the new girl caught up in it all?

**There you go. That's your synopsis. It might end up being a bit extreme, but it is a T-rated story, so cutting is pretty much an okay subject to handle.**

* * *

**Sneaky hints for Episodes 2-7**

**Sneaky hint time! Here's a sneaky hint for each episode, 2-7...**

Episode 2: "Don't you dare jump out of that window!" "FIND SOME FOSTER PARENTS THEN!"

Episode 3: "So who is she? She hasn't told us anything."

Episode 4: "Argh!"

Episode 5: "Well, I'm the new boy, nobody knows who I am." "Oh, I do." "Demon?"

Episode 6: "Faith?" "Oh, shut up, you stupid dork."

Episode 7: "Oi! I _am _important!" "Whatever you say, Tyler, whatever you say."

**And more spoilers, this time about the episode titles, with certain words bleeped out (NB These titles may change, but they're correct right now)**

Episode 2: BLEEP BLEEP  
Episode 3: The BLEEP of BLEEP  
Episode 4: BLEEP in the DG  
Episode 5: BLEEP  
Episode 6: The BLEEP BLEEP  
Episode 7: A BLEEP to BLEEP  
Episode 8: BLEEP in the DG  
Episode 9: BLEEP

* * *

**A brief sneak-preview scene for Episode 1**

"Tyler!" screamed Faith angrily, chasing Tyler through the corridors of Elm Tree House threateningly. Tyler was running, and he seemed to be enjoying the chase, even though the athletic Faith was gaining on him.

"Faith's a lesbian, Faith's a lesbian," sang Tyler loudly. Faith went red, but kept on running. "Faith's a lesbian!" shouted Tyler.

"Shut up!" cried Faith. Tyler started to pant but he kept on running, careering straight into Mike. He mumbled an apology and carried on running, Faith in hot pursuit.

Mike dusted himself off, rubbing his stomach where Tyler had run into him, and walked calmly into the kitchen to get himself a drink. He noticed something on the floor and bent to inspect it.

The object on the kitchen floor was a pair of scissors. They were covered in blood, which was still dripping.

* * *

**There you go, I just invented that scene there and then!**

* * *

**The new characters**

_This _is the interesting bit. Okay, here we go. There are **THREE **new characters in the new series, **TWO GIRLS **and **ONE BOY**. And now I'm going to tell you about them (in order of first appearance)-:

* * *

**ALEXANDRA HARVEY**

Alexandra 'Alex' Harvey is a girl aged fifteen, who on first appearance appears to be a nice, goody-goody two shoes, helpful and kind, but soon reveals her mean, bitchy streak. She has light brown skin and bushy, curly black hair, as well as penetrating blue eyes. Her and Faith are frenemies, but she disapproves of Faith's relationship with Elektra. She likes to wear a red jacket with a white shirt and is quite formal, but playful too. She makes her first appearance in Episode 1.

* * *

**RUBY GLEESON**

Ruby Gleeson is a girl aged eleven, who is very mysterious, reserved and secretive to begin with. However, she soon opens up to everybody and reveals herself to be a playful, fun-loving girl. She tends to be very proud of herself when she's done something good, and she has just-past-shoulder-length brown hair. She is very pretty. She is mostly seen wearing a red dress and sometimes a velvet, burgundy coat with a white scarf. The Dumping Ground kids think she might be a millionaire. She becomes friends with Joel and Tyler, and wants to be an actress in the future. Her first episode is Episode 3.

* * *

**NICK DENZIE**

Nick Denzie is a boy aged fourteen. He's quite cocky and is a tiny bit in love with himself, but is still very caring. He has a massive crush on Saskia, which alarms Saskia a lot because she doesn't like him at all. Nick has slightly tanned skin and brown eyes, with slicked-back black hair. He tends to be quite dramatic and gets on people's nerves quite a bit of the time, sometimes accidentally and without realising it.

* * *

So there you go... you're all ready for the brand new series of _The Dumping Ground Diaries_, which begins at the end of April. I hope you enjoy it!


	17. Series 2 Episode 1: Cutting in the DG

"TYLER!" screamed Faith angrily, chasing Tyler through the corridors of Elm Tree House threateningly. Tyler was running, and he seemed to be enjoying the chase, even though the athletic Faith was gaining on him... and fast.

"Faith's a lesbian, Faith's a lesbian," sang Tyler loudly in an irritating sing-song voice. Faith went red, but kept on running. She was fine with being a lesbian, and being in love with Elektra, but she didn't want everybody finding out. It would just be humiliating. "Faith's a lesbian!" shouted Tyler annoyingly, at the top of his voice so that everybody could hear.

"Shut up!" cried Faith determinedly. Tyler started to pant, sweating slightly with the effort of running as fast as he possibly could to evade Faith, but he kept on running, careering straight into Mike, who had just walked out from the office. Tyler mumbled an apology as Mike winced in pain, and he carried on running, Faith in hot pursuit.

Mike dusted himself off, winced and rubbed his stomach where Tyler had run into him. He briefly thought about finding out what was going on, but he decided it was best to leave Faith and Tyler to it. Somebody else would stop them doing whatever they were doing. He walked into the empty kitchen to get himself a drink. He noticed something on the floor and bent down to inspect it.

The object on the kitchen floor was a pair of scissors. They were covered in crimson, red blood, which was still dripping onto the cold floor.

* * *

**Mike, Tracy, Mark, Toby, Saskia, Elektra, Tyler, Brandon, Faith, Joel, Johnny and Alexandra the new girl in...**

**THE DUMPING GROUND DIARIES**

**Series 2, Episode 1: Cutting in the DG**

* * *

"Well, I _think _I know what's happening," decided Tracy. She, Mark and Mike were holding a makeshift conference in the office. They needed to work out what was happening, and Tracy thought she had the answer.

"What?" asked Mark.

"Well, it's obvious."

"Not to me," said Mark.

"I was a kid here, I know what that lot go through. Loneliness, sometimes depression. When there's eight of them, they're not going to all get the amount of attention they want. So..."

"So?" asked Mike, unsure what Tracy was getting at.

"Somebody's been feeling left out, somebody's been feeling lonely, so they've turned to something that they think is going to make them better."

"Spit it out," snapped Mark impatiently.

"Blood, scissors, kids in a care home, it all adds up. Cutting," said Tracy theatrically.

"Really?" asked Mark. "Wait, what's cutting?"

"You don't know?" asked Tracy. "It's self-harm. People deliberately cut themselves, make wounds with scissors or a knife or something, because they think it makes them feel better, feel free. In reality all it does is make them scarred."

"So we've got to stop it," decided Mike. "How?" he asked.

"Well, we find out who's cutting and then we work from there," announced Tracy.

"This is a Tracy plan, isn't it?" said Mike.

"Oh yes," responded Tracy.

"So Sherlock, who is it?" asked Mark.

"I've got absolutely no idea," responded Sherlock Beaker.

"Me neither," said Mike Watson. "But unlike you, Sherlock, I know just the person who's going to help us find out."

* * *

"So what do you need me for?" asked Demon to Mike, strolling through the front door into Elm Tree House alongside Mike. "Because you'd better have brought me here for a reason, I've only just managed to get away from you."

"Yeah, how long's it been? Two months-ish?" asked Mike. "How are you settling in? We haven't heard from you in ages!"

"Oh, it's brilliant. Way better than being stuck here," Demon replied. "Sorry," he added, in case he'd offended Mike.

"And Carmen and Skye, how are they?"

"Oh, Carmen's great and Skye's... um... Skye's right behind you."

Somebody tapped on Mike's back. Mike whirled around to see Skye standing there innocently in her favourite red ladybird jumper. "Hey, how are you?" he asked, happy to see Skye back.

"I'm fine!" laughed Skye. "It's brilliant to see you!"

"Brilliant to see _you _Skye!" cried Mike.

"Are we just here to have a bit of a hug or are we actually here for a reason?" asked Demon.

"Right, yes. Um... Skye, you can go and find the others if you want," explained Mike.

"Others? Remember Mike, I don't live here any more," retorted Skye.

"Sorry, Skye. Sometimes I... forget," said Mike.

"Right, bye Mike," smiled Skye, skipping off to find the children. Mike turned to Demon, with total seriousness in his eyes.

"Demon, we've got a bit of a crisis, and we really, really need you to help."

"Okay, why can't you sort it out?" asked Demon.

"It's a tender subject, we think you'll be able to help us."

"Okay, what do you want me to do?"

At that moment, Tracy 'Sherlock' Beaker came out of the office and walked over to Demon and Mike. "Hi, Demon!" she said, before turning to Mike. "Are you giving him the brief?" she asked.

"Yep," responded Mike.

"Right Demon," said Tracy, butting in. "Earlier this morning, Mike found a pair of scissors on the kitchen floor. They were _covered _in blood. We think somebody's been cutting."

"I know you're the best person for the job, Demon," said Mike. He was the only person who knew about the time when Demon was cutting himself, back when he was at a care home named Icehill. Demon had told him just before he left, and Mike had promised not to tell anybody else.

"We need you to work out who it is. We'll try and take it from there," explained Tracy. "So you think you can find out who it is?"

"Probably," Demon said, slightly wary. "I'll try, anyway."

Then the doorbell rang loudly. DING-DONG! Tracy looked around and then sighed, as if she had just realised something that she should have realised before.

"Oh, that's the new girl," she said to Mike.

"The new girl? Alexandra? She's not supposed to be here until tomorrow!" protested Mike.

"Yeah, I know, but the social worker rang me up and I said it was fine if she came today, because I didn't think there was anything wrong. And then... I forgot to tell you."

"Tra-_cy_!" hissed Mike. The doorbell rang again, and Mike opened the door. "Ah, hello, you must be Alex," he said, shaking the hand of the ordinary-looking man in the green shirt who had just walked through the door into Elm Tree House. He was clutching a suitcase in one hand.

"Alan," corrected the man.

"Oh, sorry, of course," breathed Mike. "And you must be Alexandra," he said. The new girl walked through the door confidently, with anticipation and expectation in her eyes. She was fifteen years old, but looked ever so slightly older, and her name was Alexandra Harvey. She was very pretty, with light brown skin and a mass of bushy, curly black hair. She had piercing, penetrating blue eyes. She was wearing a white shirt with a burgundy jacket, sleeves rolled up, and black trousers. She dropped the suitcase she was holding on the floor and gazed around at the Dumping Ground. She liked what she saw.

"Hmm... it's nice," she said enthusiastically, smiling broadly.

"Well, I hope you'll like it," said Tracy. "I'm Tracy, by the way. I work here. I'll show you to your room if you want. Just leave the suitcases, someone'll sort them out. Come on!" And with that, she ran up the stairs, Alexandra following her.

"Right then Alan, come into the office and we'll just sort everything out," said Mike, inviting Alan into the office. "Demon, you know what to do," he said to Demon, before disappearing into the office after Alan. Demon had work to do.

* * *

"House meeting, guys, kitchen!" called Mark into the living room, where Skye and the kids were lounging about. He'd recently come back from a holiday in Spain and had a tan now, which all of the kids kept laughing at. "Now!" he added. The kids and Skye groaned, but steadily got up and made their way to the kitchen.

"Right, we're here. Why?" asked Elektra when everybody had reached the kitchen. She was bored, but then she spotted Demon. "Hey, Demon!" she said. All heads turned in Demon's direction.

"Hi," he said casually.

"Right," began Mark, "I'm going to be completely honest with you. I've barely got any idea why you're even here for the house meeting."

"I do," said Demon. "Right, something's happened round here and Mike wants me to clear everything up. So you can go back to what you're doing normally, but I might be staring at you all a little bit. Don't worry, it's nothing, probably. And then in one hour's time come back here. It'll be lunchtime anyway, but come here before lunch. Sorted?" The kids nodded. "Okay, you can go now." The kids all filed out, and Elektra went over to talk to Demon.

* * *

Alexandra walked into the lounge of the living room. She was amazed by all the colours in the room. It was bustling with activity and children. There was a group of boys and girls playing a game of pool, and some younger children playing around a table, as well as two older girls sitting on the sofa. Everybody's head turned to Alexandra as she walked into the room.

"Hi," said Alexandra, realising that she was quite shy at the prospect of being thrust into the spotlight in front of all these children.

"Oh, are you Alexandra? Alexandra... Harvey? The new girl?" asked a rather inquisitive girl who looked about fourteen, with brown hair ending in blonde ends. She was very tall.

"Yeah, but call me Alex," said Alexandra.

Saskia nodded. "Okay," she said. "I'm Saskia Jones."

"Nice to meet you," smiled Alex. Briefly her eyes flickered over to the boy in the corner. He was just a tiny, tiny bit overweight for his age – she could tell that he looked about ten or eleven – and short blonde hair. He had a round face that Alex couldn't shake from her mind. Suddenly she recognised where she'd seen him before. Her eyes flicked away from Joel Sherwood and back to Saskia.

* * *

There was a knock on Tyler's bedroom door. "Who is it?" asked Tyler.

"Me," said Demon, from outside the bedroom.

"Go away, I'm busy!" shouted Tyler.

Demon saw this as an invitation to come in, so he entered the room. "I'm going to have to ask you one or two questions," he said. "Don't bother complaining, Mike's fine with it. Actually, he's told me to do it. Remember before, when I said he'd told me to sort something out? Anyway, you're the last one on the list."

"I'm busy!" complained Tyler.

"What did I say about complaining? Don't do it!" said Demon. "Right, question one: what exactly were you doing last night and this morning?"

* * *

Just before lunch, as promised, all of the children in the Dumping Ground filed into the kitchen. Tracy told them they could sit down for lunch, as she and Mike walked to the corner of the kitchen, and turned to Demon.

"You've had an hour," whispered Tracy. "So who is it?"

Demon glanced over his shoulder at the table. All of the kids were there. He turned his head back to the two careworkers. "Joel."

"What, really?" asked Mike. "Joel? Why do you say that?"

"Joel never wore long-sleeved shirts whilst I was here. Now he's wearing a long-sleeved shirt. The long sleeves could conceal any marks made on the arms. I was in the lounge earlier, the new girl came in, stared at Joel, Joel stared back, there was recognition there, definitely. So maybe she's something to do with it. Joel's been looking really nervous this morning, since I told all the kids that you'd told me to find something out." He gestured to Mike. "He's been looking around all the time, and shortly after he and the new girl glanced at each other, he went to his room. He's been there ever since. The scissors that were found don't seem to have the biggest finger hole things, so that ruled out some out of the older kids. Their fingers wouldn't have fit in the holes. Before I realised that, I suspected one of the older kids, possibly Saskia after that business before about her not being given full attention or whatever it was – older teenagers generally feel more depression, I think, if I'm right. Then I realised it was Joel. He's not exactly the most cheery of people, is he? I might not be completely right, but my best guess is it's Joel."

"Well done, Sherlock Traylen," said Tracy.

"Thanks," Demon replied modestly.

"So now what do we do?" asked Tracy. "Do we tell him that we've worked out that it's him? Do we send him to a special home?"

"We talk to new girl," Demon decided.

* * *

"We've worked it out, there's no point denying it, we know it's something to do with you," said Mike. He, Demon and Tracy were in Alex's new room. Alex was sitting on the bed.

"We've worked out it was Joel, but we need to know how you're involved," explained Tracy.

"Why do you presume I was involved in the first place?" retorted Alex.

"Big glances at Joel all morning. Recognition," explained Demon.

"Okay, if it's going to make a difference I'll come clean."

"Well?" asked Mike.

"Two weeks ago, a boy called Joel Sherwood contacted me online. I do a little bit of online counselling in my spare time, just helping people. There's no profit or anything, I just want to help people and give them my knowledge and experience. My help. And he said he was cutting. Well, I've never been contacted by somebody so young who's cutting, so I needed to help him. For two weeks, we've been exchanging emails and talking online. I've been trying to get him to stop it. Cutting destroys people. They become addicted, the scissors are like a drug. I think I might have made some progress, though I still don't know why he started cutting in the first place. Then my parents had to move to Germany for work, and it was too expensive and logistically difficult for me to go with them. They'll be there for at least nineteen months. So I got moved here, realised that Joel was here. It was an amazing coincidence."

"So you're trying to help Joel get over the cutting and the addiction?" asked Tracy. Alex nodded. "Okay, well if it's okay with Mike, I think that it'll be fine to keep Joel here at Elm Tree House on just three simple conditions."

"What?" asked Alex.

"One: he's _never _left in the house alone. Two: all sharp objects are kept far away from him unless there's an adult about, and three: you keep on giving him that counselling, Alex. Hopefully keeping scissors away from him might have an effect, and the addiction might go away, but we'll give your counselling a go. It might have a great effect, and you seem like a trustworthy person," said Tracy.

"So it's all sorted," smiled Mike.

* * *

**Brandon's Diary**

**Saturday September 7**

Why does she have to go? I want her to stay. She's my friend! I won't let her go.

* * *

"Brandon, I have to go now!" said Skye. Brandon didn't want to let her go back home. He missed his old friend, and had been trying to get her to stay at the Dumping Ground for around ten minutes.

"Please stay!" he pleaded.

"No!" screamed Skye. "Sorry," she said, more quietly.

"Okay," conceded Brandon, "but please come back soon."

"Don't worry," said Skye, "I will."

* * *

**Hey, _The Dumping Ground Diaries _is back! Oh, I love writing this story! Most of the rest of the series is fully planned, but Episodes 10-12 are a bit hazy at the moment and Episode 12 will probably be replaced by something else, it's a bit self-indulgent and cringeworthy. I've got two ideas for the episode, both**** of which I'm not entirely sure about. Anyway, there's a great series coming up, don't worry! Also, I'm reflecting on what a weird way April 3 was this year. I had fish fingers and custard for lunch, got rid of four characters, introduced three more, and turned two into lesbians! Moving on, very swiftly, and blocking the memory of that out of my mind...**

* * *

**Blimey, that was very long, wasn't it? Well, compared to the Series 1 episodes. Sorry, didn't mean for it to be that long, I just wrote the story out and then realised it was coming up to 3000 words. Sorry. They won't all be this long, I promise.**

* * *

**Next time on _The Dumping Ground Diaries_**

Feeling exasperated that everybody seems to be getting fostered apart from him, Johnny sets out on a mission to get fostered. A mission that might just put his life in jeopardy...

**Episode 2 is called "Extreme Measures". It's a Johnny episode. Be warned.**


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